Festival Da Canção Wrap-up and the Arrival of Peter Serrado

Hello everyone, having come back early this week, I had a few flights to put into perspective the journey that was, how it started and what transpired. Let me first start by saying that not only is our community proud of how far our very own Peter Serrado went, but myself as someone close to him having helped in any way I could, very much am as well.
This whole journey began as a longshot submission into the Festival Da Canção by Peter, a song he wrote and had a rough unfinished demo of the song he titled “Sunset.” He did so, because for the first time ever, they opened their doors to composers from outside of Portugal. This was at very least a chance, and that was significant because prior to Peter and I meeting, we both individually followed the festival throughout the years, as well as the Eurovision competition. To be clear, it was always a dream for Peter to be part of the song competition, but even he didn’t think or expect it was going to get selected. First, the song he submitted was in English, the language he is most comfortable writing lyrically in. Not to say that he is not comfortable to sing in Portuguese, but if something was to get chosen, now was not the time to submit something he was not totally proficient in at 100%.
The song got chosen, incredibly out of 390 foreign entries. 1 song chosen out of that many songs, and I can tell you through having met 2 of the people on that panel that chose the song, they reviewed the song various times, because they simply loved the song and his voice, regardless of the fact that it was English. Besides all of the Portuguese composers that vied for the honor to be part of the Festival Da Canção but were not selected, this instantly became a first to have Peter as the first outsider be one of the final 26 composers competing for the honor to represent Portugal in the Eurovision in Lisbon in 2018. It takes place in Portugal for the first time ever because Portugal won the Eurovision competition for the first time ever in 2017 with Salvador Sobral singing “Amar Pelos Dois.” All of the other 25 composers were either famous, or very well recognized. You had giant names such as Diogo Piçarra, Isaura, Jorge Palma, Miguel Angelo, Jose Cid, Capicua amongst others, and there was our very own Peter Serrado, having been chosen over so many to be there. This was also the 1st time Portugal had this many entries, and as a result, they would cut the 26 in half and have 2 phases, choosing the top 7 in each group of 13. Peter was placed last in the 2nd phase, arguably the tougher of the phases because it contained Portugal’s biggest star today in Diogo Piçarra as well as Isaura and Miguel Angelo. Making it out of the 2nd phase alone would not be easy, but come Febrary 25th on the strength of the 3rd highest public vote behind only Piçarra & Isaura, Peter made it through to the finals.
At this point, we started hearing the equally split argument of the fact it shouldn’t represent Portugal because of the song being in English, the other half arguing it should not matter. Ironic because for so long Portugal always supported English music much more than its own. We talked about how it was so nice to finally see that attitude in praising Portugal’s own artists, a rather new concept we both wished had happened more far sooner.
March 4th was the final, the day that Portugal by virtue of a new jury representing all of the regions of Portugal as well as a public vote, would decide its representative in the Eurovision in Lisbon in May of this year. In the end, Peter on the back of a strong performance came in 10th place overall, but by the public’s vote came in 8th out of 26. Without anyone knowing who he was before he set his feet on Portuguese soil earlier this year. The winner representing Portugal quite well with a very strong song, would eventually be Isaura’s song “O Jardim” sung partially by herself with Cláudia Pasqual taking the lead.
As for the English / Portuguese debate and if it would have been better for him if he sang in Portuguese, it should be observed that as of this moment with some countries still yet to finalize their representatives – Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Cypress, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Sweden, Switzerland and the Ukraine – 20 countries, have chosen their winners – with an English song representing them. Who knows how the song would have done in Portuguese, or if it would even have been chosen in the first place, but I can assure you for sure that Peter Serrado would have it no other way. It was an honest effort / song and there will be most definitely time for songs being sung in Portuguese on the upcoming album.