Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Festival da Canção 2009 was the 45th edition of Festival da Canção, the music competition that selects Portugal's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The format of the competition consisted of the final on 28 February 2009, which took place at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon. The competition featured twelve competing songs selected from an online vote between 19 and 30 January 2009.[3] Results were determined by the votes from regional jury panels and a public voting.[4] In a change from previous Festival de Canção contests, RTP held an open competition for anyone wishing to participate instead of directly inviting producers to submit entries.[5]

RTP opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries between 2 December 2008 and 12 January 2009. Composers were required to have Portuguese citizenship, and songs were required to be performed in Portuguese. 393 entries were received at the conclusion of the submission period, and a selection committee shortlisted 24 entries for the online vote. The selection committee consisted of the Head of Delegation José Poiares, Tozé Brito, Fernando Martins and Ramón Galarza. The shortlisted entries were announced during a press conference on 19 January 2009, hosted by José Fragoso and Sílvia Alberto.[6][7] Among the competing artists were former Eurovision Song Contest entrants Nucha who represented Portugal in the 1990 Contest, and Luciana Abreu who represented Portugal in the 2005 Contest as part of 2B.

Among the artists who have submitted entries but wasn't shortlisted for the online vote were: Bruno Henriques, Catarina Ferreira, Cláudia Madeira (former Operação Triunfo contestant), Eva Danin (former Operação Triunfo contestant and backing singer for Vânia Fernandes at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008), Evelyne, Filipa Ruas (former Operação Triunfo contestant), Filipa Sousa (former Operação Triunfo contestant), Hugo Biqueira, Kássio, Leonardo, Nuno Paiva, Nuno Durão & Ariana, Romana, Sofia & Fred, Sónia Santos, Tânia Gonçalves & Cheng and Wanda Stuart.[8]

The twenty-four shortlisted entries were made available via RTP's official website on 19 January 2009, and local and international users were able to vote for their favorite entries each day until 30 January 2009.[9] On 24 January 2009, RTP deleted more than 20,000 fraudulent votes after José Poiares confirmed that "the broadcaster reserves the right to remove votes when deemed fraudulent", and that such a process "will be continued until the final voting day".[10] It was also rumoured that "Sem ti não quero acordar" performed by Pedro Daniel would be disqualified as the song was performed at the Lagoa Song Festival in 2006, as well as having been used in a television commercial in September 2006. "Sinto sentido" performed by Pedro Duvalle was also rumoured to be disqualified, as the song was possibly performed during a concert held on 17 June 2008 in Viseu.[11] RTP later announced that they will study the originality of the two songs, but will only disclose their findings if either of the two songs advanced in the competition.[12] On 28 January 2009, Miguel Cervini withdrew from the competition after he disagreed with over 4,000 deemed to be fraudulent votes being removed from his song "Não está".[13]

117,639 valid votes were received at the conclusion of the voting period and the twelve entries with the most votes advanced to the final, with "Juntos vamos conseguir (Yes We Can)" performed by Luciana Abreu winning the voting with 11,193 votes.[14] Pedro Duvalle, who came eleventh, was disqualified from the competition due to the song having been performed prior to 1 October 2008.[15] He was replaced by "Lua sem luar" performed by Nuno Norte, who came thirteenth in the voting.[7][16]

The final took place at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon on 28 February 2009, hosted by Sílvia Alberto. In the final twelve entries participated, and the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from regional juries and a public telephone vote.[1][2]

• In the Final Portugal came 15th with 57 points: the public awarded Portugal 18th place with 45 points and the jury awarded also 18th place with 64 points.