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Portugal was represented at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2001 The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 was the 46th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, following the country's victory at the with the song " Fly on the Wings of Love" by Olsen Brothers. Organised by the Eur ...
with the song "" written by Marco Quelhas and performed by the duo MTM. The Portuguese participating broadcaster, (RTP), returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation in as one of the six countries with the lowest average scores over the previous five contests. RTP organised the national final 2001 in order to select its entry for the contest. After five semi-finals and a final which took place between October 2000 and March 2001, "" performed by MTM emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from 20 regional juries. The song competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2001. Performed during the show in position 11, it placed seventeenth out of the 23 participating songs from different countries, scoring 18 points.


Background

Prior to the 2001 contest, (RTP) had participated in the
Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
representing Portugal thirty-five times since its first entry in . Its highest placing in the contest was sixth, achieved in with the song "" performed by Lúcia Moniz. Its least successful result has been last place, which it has achieved on three occasions, most recently in with the song "" performed by Célia Lawson. The Portuguese entry has also received ''
nul points The winner of the Eurovision Song Contest is determined by a positional voting system. The most recent version of the system was implemented in the . Each participating country awards two sets of 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 points, based on th ...
'' on two occasions; in 1964 and 1997. RTP has traditionally selected the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest via the music competition , with an exception in when it selected its entry internally. The broadcaster organized 2001 in order to select the 2001 Portuguese entry.


Before Eurovision


2001

2001 was the 38th edition of that selected the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Artists and composers were able to submit their entries for the competition between 12 June 2000 and 12 July 2000, and 50 entries were selected from 572 submissions received. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrant Pedro Soares (member of the group Vudoo), who represented Portugal in the 1998 contest as a member of Alma Lusa. Marisa Mena, who competed under the moniker Izamena, would later go on to represent Portugal at the
Eurovision Song Contest 2023 The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 67th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Liverpool, United Kingdom, as , the winner of the with the song "Stefania (song), Stefania" by Kalush Orchestra, was unable to host the eve ...
as Mimicat. The format of the competition consisted of six shows taking place in different cities across Portugal: five semi-finals and a final. Each semi-final featured ten competing entries from which two as determined by a jury panel appointed by RTP advanced from each show to complete the ten song lineup in the final. Results during the final were determined by the votes from 20 regional juries. All six shows of the competition were hosted by Sónia Araújo and Cristina Möhler and broadcast on
RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...
and
RTP Internacional RTP Internacional (RTPi) is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's international television service, and is known for broadcas ...
.


Shows


Semi-finals

The five semi-finals took place between 20 October 2000 and 16 February 2001. In each semi-final ten entries competed and two advanced to the final based on the votes of a jury panel consisting of three permanent members (Tozé Brito, Luís Pedro Fonseca and José Calvário) and two varying members:
Sara Tavares Sara Alexandra Lima Tavares (; 1 February 1978 – 19 November 2023) was a Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist. She was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. Second-generation Portuguese of Cape Verdean descent, she comp ...
and Margarida Brandão for the first semi-final,
Adelaide Ferreira Maria Adelaide Mengas Matafome Ferreira (born 23 September 1959) is a Portugal, Portuguese singer. She started as a rock singer with the hit "Baby suicida" in 1981. After that, she has sung ballads. She represented Portugal in the Eurovision So ...
and Sofia Lisboa for the second semi-final, Olavo Bilac and João de Almeida for the third semi-final,
Rita Guerra Rita Maria de Azevedo Mafra Guerra, commonly known as Rita Guerra (born 22 October 1967) is a Portuguese singer-songwriter. She represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest, Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 where she sang "D ...
and Luís Filipe for the fourth semi-final, and João Gil and Luís Alberto Bettencourt for the fifth semi-final.


Final

The final took place on 7 March 2001, but the broadcast of the show was postponed until 11 March 2001 after two days of national mourning were declared due to the Hintze Ribeiro Bridge collapse. The ten entries that qualified from the five preceding semi-finals competed and the winner, "Só sei ser feliz assim" performed by MTM, was selected based on the votes of 20 regional juries.


At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 took place at
Parken Stadium Parken, currently known as Parken - Connected by 3 for sponsorship reasons, and as Telia Parken (2014–2020), is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium in the Indre Østerbro (''Inner Østerbro'') district of Copenhagen, Denmark, built from ...
in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12 May 2001. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2001 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. The 23 participants were made up of the host country, the " Big Four" countries (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), and the 12 countries with the highest average scores between the
1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
and
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
contests competed in the final. On 9 November 2001, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Portugal was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from
Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
and before the entry from
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. Portugal finished in seventeenth place scoring 18 points. RTP broadcast the contest on
RTP1 RTP1 (''RTP um'') is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's flagship television channel, and is known for broadcasting mains ...
and
RTP Internacional RTP Internacional (RTPi) is a Portuguese free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP). It is the company's international television service, and is known for broadcas ...
with commentary by Eládio Clímaco.


Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Portugal and awarded by Portugal in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to France in the contest. RTP appointed Margarida Mercês de Melo to announce the results of the Portuguese televote during the final.


References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2001
2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001
Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...