Amar Pelos Dois: Portugal's First Win After 53 Years

MAY 15 2017 · 12:20

Salvador Sobral · "Amar Pelos Dois" · Portugal · 2017 Placement: 1st · Score: 758 · Language: Portuguese · Composers: Luísa Sobral · Venue: International Exhibition Centre · Host: Kyiv, Ukraine · Type: winner · Broadcast: streaming On May 13, 2017, at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, a slight, frail-looking Portuguese singer named Salvador Sobral walked onto a circular B-stage in the middle of the arena, closed his eyes, and sang 'Amar Pelos Dois' — a jazz-inflected ballad written by his sister Luísa. There were no pyrotechnics, no dancers, no LED backdrops keyed to the song. The entire performance was Sobral in a dark sweater, alone, in Portuguese, with a wireless microphone. Portugal had entered Eurovision 53 times since 1964 without ever winning. Sobral won with 758 points — the highest total under the new scoring system — receiving maximum 12s from 18 national juries and the televote of 12 more. His in-between-songs interview, delivered in English with visible exhaustion, became a cultural artifact in its own right: he criticized disposable pop ('We live in a world of disposable music, fast-food music without any content') and dedicated the win to his sister. Sobral was already at that point suffering from the heart condition that would require a transplant later in 2017. Context Portugal had the longest Eurovision drought of any continuously-participating nation — 53 years of submissions without a win, a national joke that RTP had been unable to escape despite multiple genre attempts. Salvador Sobral had been competing in a smaller Portuguese talent show; his sister Luísa, already an established singer-songwriter, had submitted 'Amar Pelos Dois' to RTP's Eurovision selection. Sobral's pre-existing heart condition was public knowledge during the contest; his stamina was managed carefully through rehearsals. Eurovision 2017 was held in Ukraine following Jamala's 2016 win, a selection made against the backdrop of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Russia's 2017 entry, Yulia Samoylova, was banned from entering Ukraine over her prior performance in occupied Crimea — Russia withdrew. Legacy Sobral's victory ended Portugal's 53-year wait and his 'disposable music' comments reframed critical discussion of Eurovision for years afterward — quoted in every subsequent conversation about the contest's genre and production inflation. Portugal hosted Eurovision 2018 in Lisbon and produced a contest widely considered aesthetically refined even when its televised outcomes were mixed. Sobral received a heart transplant in December 2017 and returned to music in 2018. The 'minimal performance, maximum song' template his victory validated has been cited by every subsequent singer-songwriter Eurovision submission that eschewed production maximalism. He remains the most recent Portuguese Eurovision winner. Mythology Sobral's 'disposable music' comment is often quoted as having been delivered in his winner's speech; it was actually given in a pre-show interview and became the speech retroactively via media amplification. His heart condition is sometimes reported as having emerged during the contest; it was a long-diagnosed pre-existing condition. The popular image of the performance as entirely unadorned is slightly oversimplified — there was atmospheric lighting and the B-stage itself was a production choice.