Basel, Switzerland, May 13, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal is competing on Tuesday for a place in the final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, taking place in Basel, Switzerland, with the song "Displaced", performed by Napa, but it will be difficult to get through, according to the bookmakers.
In today's semi-final, the first, in addition to Portugal, there will be Iceland (with the song ‘RÓA’, performed by VÆB), Poland (‘’GAJA‘’/Justyna Steczkowska), Slovenia (‘’How much time do we have left‘’/Klemen), Estonia (‘’Espresso Macchiato‘’/Tommy Cash), Ukraine (‘’Bird of Prayer‘’/Ziferblat), Sweden (‘’Barra Bada Bastu‘’/KAJ), Norway (‘Lighter’/Kyle Alessandro), Belgium (‘Strobe lights’/Red Sebastian), Azerbaijan (‘Run with you’/Mamagama), San Marino (‘Tutta l'Italia’/Gabry Ponte), Albania (‘Zjerm’/Shkodra Elektronike), the Netherlands (‘C'est l'a vie’/Claude), Croatia (‘Poison cake’/Marko Bošnjak) and Cyprus (‘Shh’/Theo Evan).
Only ten will go through to the final, scheduled for Saturday, and according to the average of several bookmakers, calculated by eurovisionworld.com, which specialises in the contest, Portugal is unlikely to make it.
On Monday afternoon, Portugal was in 15th place in the betting odds for the first semi-final.
Two semi-finals were held to determine the countries competing in the final for the first time in 2008 and since then Portugal has missed out five times: in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2019.
In addition to the competing countries, today the representatives of Spain (‘Esa diva’/Melody), Italy (‘Volevo essere un duro’/Lúcio Corsi) and Switzerland (‘Voyage’/Zoë Më) will also take to the stage, countries that are guaranteed a place in the final - the first two because they are part of the ‘Big5’ group and the latter because it is the host country, last year's winner.
There will also be other singers taking to the stage, invited by the organisation, including iolanda, the singer who represented Portugal in 2024 with the song ‘Grito’.
In the second semi-final on Thursday, 16 more countries will compete for ten places in the final: Australia, Montenegro, Ireland, Latvia, Armenia, Austria, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Georgia, Denmark, Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Israel, Serbia and Finland.
In addition, the songs of three other countries with direct entry into the final will be presented: France, Germany and the United Kingdom and Italy, the remaining three members of the ‘Big5’.
Tonight's semi-final starts at 9pm local time (8pm in Lisbon), and is broadcast live around the world. In Portugal, it is shown on state broadcaster RTP.
This year's edition of Eurovision is likely to be marked once again by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This year there have again been calls for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to exclude Israel's participation.
One of these calls was made by singers, composers, musicians, dancers and chorus members from various countries, including Portugal, in an open letter published jointly by the non-governmental organisation Artists For Palestine and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Among the Portuguese signatories are Salvador Sobral, Paulo de Carvalho, Lena D'Água and António Calvário.
Spanish public television, RTVE, for its part, called for the ‘opening of a debate’ on the participation of Israeli television KAN in the Eurovision Song Contest, in a letter addressed to the EBU.
Petitions had previously been launched in Finland, asking Finnish public television Yle to put pressure on the EBU to exclude Israel from the 2025 edition because of the war in Gaza.
JRS/AYLS // AYLS
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