Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Love Is on My Side" written by Pedro "Tatanka" Caldeira. The song was performed by the band the Black Mamba. The Portuguese broadcaster (RTP) organised the national final in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. After two semi-finals and a final which took place in February and March 2021, "Love Is on My Side" performed by the Black Mamba emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from seven regional juries and a public televote.
Portugal was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 20 May 2021. Performing during the show in position 12, "Love Is on My Side" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 22 May. It was later revealed that Portugal placed fourth out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 239 points. In the final, Portugal performed in position 7 and placed twelfth out of the 26 participating countries with 153 points.
Background
Prior to the 2021 contest, Portugal had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-one times since its first entry in 1964. Portugal had won the contest on one occasion: in 2017 with the song "" performed by Salvador Sobral. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Portugal had featured in only five finals. Portugal's least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on four occasions, most recently in 2018 with the song "" performed by Cláudia Pascoal. Portugal has also received on two occasions; in 1964 and 1997. The nation failed to qualify to the final in 2019 with the song "" performed by Conan Osíris. In 2020, Elisa was set to represent Portugal with the song "" before the contest's cancellation.
The Portuguese national broadcaster, (RTP), broadcasts the event within Portugal and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTP confirmed Portugal's participation in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 October 2020. The broadcaster has traditionally selected the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest via the music competition , with exceptions in 1988 and 2005 when the Portuguese entries were internally selected. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster revealed details regarding their selection procedure and announced the organization of in order to select the 2021 Portuguese entry.
Before Eurovision
Festival da Canção 2021
was the 55th edition of that selected Portugal's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. Twenty entries competed in the competition that consisted of two semi-finals held on 20 and 27 February 2021 leading to a ten-song final on 6 March 2021. All three shows of the competition took place at RTP's Studio 1 in Lisbon and were broadcast on RTP1 and as well as online via RTP Play. The shows were also broadcast on with presentation in Portuguese Sign Language.
Format
The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two semi-finals on 20 and 27 February 2021 and the final on 6 March 2021. Each semi-final featured ten competing entries from which five advanced from each show to complete the ten song lineup in the final. Results during the semi-finals were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel appointed by RTP and public televoting, while results during the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from seven regional juries and public televoting, which was opened following the second semi-final and closed during the final show. Both the public televote and the juries assigned points from 1–8, 10 and 12 based on the ranking developed by both streams of voting.
Competing entries
Twenty composers were selected by RTP through two methods: eighteen invited by RTP for the competition and two selected from 693 submissions received through an open call for songs. The composers, which both created the songs and selected its performers, were required to submit the demo and final versions of their entries by 30 November and 31 December 2020, respectively. Songs could be submitted in any language. The selected composers were revealed on 4 December 2020, while the competing artists were revealed on 20 January 2021.