And the winner of the best song is: Salvador Sobral from Lisbon

After Websummit in 2016, and The Pope visit in 2017, Lisbon now gets one more big event: Eurovision 2018  

Saturday evening we were in Sevilla having a fantastic tapas dinner far from the Eurovision Hysteria we later found out was happening at the same time. So we didn’t understand a word of the messages that clicked in on our phones, especially  this one: He is so cute. Can you arrange a date with him – from our friend Michael. Eurovision hasn’t been part of our life for ages. So we asked Clara to blog about it. Amar Pelos Dois is not only a super track. It’s a fantastic event to get for Lisbon in 2018 🙂 Thomas

 

This year’s Portuguese entry was called Amar Pelos Dois (which means Love for Both) and was taken to Kiev by Salvador Sobral

Portugal has been participating in the contest since 1964 and until this day no Portuguese singer had ever taken the trophy home. So as you can imagine, this was quite a big deal here. A song that triumphed for its simplicity and emotion Amar pelos dois was written by Salvador’s sister, Luísa Sobral, who is also a singer.  

The whole world has seen Salvador Sobral performing at Eurovision in Kiev Saturday. So here is his solo performance of Amar Pelos Dois from Spanish TV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffqIa1L4TBE A lot of us Portuguese didn’t believe it to stand a chance, when the song was selected to represent Portugal. It was “too calm”, “too simple” and maybe too heavy with “saudade”. But it turns out that the less is more mantra worked its magic, as Salvador managed to dazzle the entire Europe with his emotional ballad (even those who didn’t understand the lyrics!). The Guardian said that the performance… reminds us that Portuguese is quite possibly the loveliest language in which to sing soft, good, songs. They might be just right 🙂 Not only did Portugal win, but we also beat the general score record with a total of 758 points.  

Salvador Sobral  himself was surprised to win

[caption id="attachment_28250" align="alignleft" width="337"] 2,000 fans welcomed Salvador Sobral when he arrived in Lisbon[/caption]   Salvador himself admitted that he had never watched Eurovision, nor did he feel like he could relate to the festival. During the Festival he kept a very relaxed attitude, making several critical observations about the way Eurovision is nowadays. He also announced that the organization had asked him not to address political matters like the need to help refugees (something that he had done previously in a press conference). After winning, he underlined the need for a change in the musical world, saying that “Music is not fireworks, music is feeling”. More than 2.000 people waited for him at the airport, surprising him with an unexpected welcome as he awkwardly admitted, he didn’t know how to deal with it. So, the winner is someone who’s music and attitude vary from what is usual in this festival. This certainly indicates interesting times for Eurovision fans, right? The good news is next year’s Eurovision that will take place in Portugal. So Eurovision fans better start planning their trip now to get the best hotels in Lisbon. Clara  ]]>