Portugal's representative at the 68th Eurovision Song Contest, Iolanda with the song “Grito”, has secured passage to the final of the contest, scheduled for Saturday in Malmö, Sweden.
In addition to “Grito”, songs from Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Finland, Cyprus, Croatia, Ireland, and Luxembourg were also chosen to advance to the final.
In the first semi-final, which was broadcast live in Portugal on RTP1, 15 songs competed for ten places. Poland, Iceland, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Australia were left out of the final.
This year, 37 countries participate in the Eurovision Song Contest, but only 26 reach the final: the ten chosen today, ten that will be selected on Thursday, in the second semi-final, and the so-called 'Big Five' (France, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and Italy) and the host country.
Portugal debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1964 represented by António Calvário. The country finished last scoring nul points. Prior to 2017, the best result of Portugal was 6th place which came in 1996 when Lúcia Moniz performed in Oslo. She scored 92 points, receiving 12 points from both Norway and Cyprus. Since their debut, Portugal have missed a total of five contests. In 2017, Portugal produced a spectacular win when Salvador Sobral took home the crystal microphone with his song “Amar pelos dois”. The 2018 contest was held in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon for the first time.