Portugal 2024: Iolanda with 'Grito'

Our final national selection of the year led to a late night victory for long time favourite Iolanda:

Ever since Salvador Sobral's victory (and spared by the covid pandemic in 2020) Portugal have been pretty solid performers in throwing up interesting and/or well performed songs and this is another one that fits in that category.

Iolanda has one of the cleanest vocals at this year’s contest and ‘Grito’ is one of the more intricate compositions, stripped back where necessary. To me, it feels 30 seconds short maybe and an extra rendition of that chorus with the production and vocal at full blast would be beneficial. It’s also hard to put a finger on what the exact atmosphere is here. Portugal are quietly very competent at staging and I’d expect improvements on this same concept by the time we get to Malmo. If Iolanda can improve her stage presence a little to match the vocal this could overachieve.

As it stands, Portugal would be satisfied with another qualification so let’s weigh that up. Unfortunately for them, Portugal are on the wrong end of the Anglo-Saxon-Nordic/ Mediterranean automatic qualifier split and would likely fare far better with Spain, Italy and France able to vote.

On the plus side, the quality in semi 1 tapers off noticeably for the second half where this is with only Finland (an entirely different entry to this of course) looking like a certain qualifier. I feel this works quite well in that section and the assumption is there are 12 points in the bank from Luxembourg given the diaspora. Provisionally until we get a running order I have this more in than out. In the final, I would not put a jury top 10 beyond Portugal but the televote is likely to be pretty low. Mid table feels most likely.

Personal Rating: 8/10

Competitve Rating: 6/10

Early Prediction: Semi Final 1 8th-12th, 14th-18th if in the final.