The Portuguese National Final, or “Festival Da Canção”, was held this past weekend in Lisbon, and a dozen songs battled it out for the right to carry the flag to Baku and maybe (just maybe) bring the Eurovision trophy to Portugal for the first time in history.  This was a big year for Portuguese music, as UNESCO recently included the fado on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (it should be noted that Azerbaijan’s native mugham is also on the list).  Would 2012’s Eurovision song follow UNESCO’s lead, or would we hear a different genre in Baku?

Coming in first place with both the juries and the televote, it’s 27-year-old Filipa Sousa who won the ticket with her melancholy, fado-influenced ballad “Vida Minha”:

Dramatic, fado-tinged, female-led…sounds a bit like 2008’s “Senhora do Mar“, doesn’t it?  Well, your ears don’t deceive you, as this was, in fact, written by the songwriting team of Andrej Babić and Carlos Coelho, also behind Vânia Fernandes’s epic entry that year.  Considering that “Senhora do Mar” gave Portugal their highest ranking in years, it’s a nice pedigree to be working with.