Portugal has rejoined the Eurovision Song Contest in time for the 50th anniversary of their first appearance. Is their song golden?
After a year off after some disappointing results (their last two entries before 2014 failed to make the final), Portugal has rejoined the Eurovision Song Contest just in time for the 50th anniversary of their first appearance. Although there's currently some mild controversy over their song choice (some viewers are currently contesting the televote results), Portugal has selected Suzy and her song "Quero Ser Tua" as their representative on this golden year.
The first word that comes to mind for this song is "dated". There's something about the combo of the melody and instrumentation (which reminds me of the "salsa" default drum track on a Casio keyboard) that, while sounding like Eurovision, sounds like Eurovision 1997. Not the best thing to come to mind for 2014. Suzy's vocals are also kind of pedestrian, struggling to keep up with the tempo of the song and its highs and lows. All of these things together don't speak well to its performance come May.
The performance also feels dated. Ignoring the video quality used here (which only lends credence to my theory that Portugal found a lost entry from 1997 and decided to send it this year), the whole performance style (which seems to heavily feature what I can only describe as "man candy" backup dancers) is something I haven't really seen since my early days of watching the competition almost 7 years ago. On the plus side, they must have gotten those drums cheap from Ireland's performance last year ((shame Ireland forgot to tell them they got last place with them)). Portugal's disco nap from the competition appears to have left them stuck wa-wa-way-wa-way in the past - I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't make the final.