Portugal 2025: NAPA with ‘Descolado’

Recent subtle powerhouse Portugal will be hoping to again exceed expectations in order to keep their decent run going, after NAPA's narrowest of wins in FdC:

In the talk and fan hype about Josh, Fernando Daniel, Diana and Henka, this tune from NAPA went under the radar and wasn't on many people's shorlists despite the streaming. Shout out to those who did see this coming.

Unfortunately for the band I think the bigger talking points are elsewhere again in looking at what needs to change with FdC going forward. The regional jury system needs to be looked at with the only real benefit of that being the pretense to have an interesting jury points presentation - which is pointless anyway because it's immediately translated into an overall 1-12 system - a format I don't like in any national final.

I don't have an issue with the televote winner not going here and being throughly marked down but the fact Henka was able to win the televote against Napa's regional support and Fernando Daniel does show how starved the Portuguese audience is of anything a bit different. Hopefully this has shown that something not typically FdC can do well and there are more different genres going forward whilst still keeping this suitably 'Portuguese' flavoured.

Anyway that was just a diversion to pad out this review because there's not much to say about this song. It is what it is and will be presented in a similar way. There's nothing wrong with it in particular, it's just quite boring. Occasionally these more subtle numbers cut through but there's not a lot of spots realistically to play for in semi one and this doesn't look up to the battle unless RTP can really get the message across and make this connect.

Spain and the rest of the world are the likeliest to give this something but that too is probably low and this just gets lost in a stacked first half. Maybe if new diaspora ally Luxembourg were here to lend a 12 there’d be a more serious argument but it looks a very long shot.

Probably bottom 3 in the semi, maybe last.

Personal Rating: 7/20

Staging Potential: 7/20

Televote Potential: 3/20

Jury Potential: 6/20

Track Record: 12/20

Total Rating: 35/100

Early Prediction: Semi One 13th-15th