Portugal 2021- The Black Mamba with ‘Love is on My Side’

Portugal are sending their first ever entry completely in English, and it's not the one people seemed to have been hoping for…

Now this may be one for your #controvesial Eurovision opinions, but Neev was a pound shop Duncan and I don't blame the juries for burying him. It was an imitation, fine on its own right but nothing special and nothing worth backing in the outright, particularly when a result like this or a Carolina Deslandes victory were always on the cards.

As for this, well, it’s kind of an imitation too, a pastiche of jury friendly tropes. It's done well however and I don't find it to drag which is a problem this type of thing tends to have. Juries will go for this, and it could do very well with them.

Of course, the televote is the worry, but there may just be a gap for this in semi or at least enough reason to think this won't be too far adrift. The running order will be key here, we know the tendencies to go slow, fast, slow fast but ideally this is placed next to Denmark let’s say rather than Finland. You want it to stand out as a bit of quality, not just be overshadowed completely.

It's hard to call right now whether this is through or not but should it make it, Portugal would probably fare OK in the final, not suffering a jury drop to the same extent as all the pop songs piling up.

Personal Rating: 4/10 Competitive Rating: 5/10 Early Prediction: Semi Two 8th-13th, 13th-18th in the final if a qualifier.