Portugal


 * [[image:FLORdeLIS-RESIZE-257-172.jpg align="right"]]Artist Biography:** Flor-de-lis is a Portugal folk music group that won the 45th edition [|Festival da Cancao] with their song Todas As Ruas Do Amor (translated in English means, “All the Streets of Love”). This year, Flor-de-lis will be representing Portugal at the [|Eurovision song contest] in Moscow, Russia.

The beginnings of Flor-de-Lis are closely linked to the "Adufe" project where Pedro Marques' participated as a percussionist. The “Adufe” project was first produced by José Salgueiro as an attraction for Expo-98, which focused on traditional Portuguese instruments. This led to several national and international events during 1999 and 2000. Pedro’s desire to explore many conventions of Portuguese music grew during these events.

In 2001, the project started taking shape with Pedro Marques setting up recording sessions with the accompaniment of woodwind instruments played by Paulo Pereria. Another participant followed soon after by the name of Daniela Varela, who is now a vocalist in the music group. Daniela showed her gift singing at an early age, appearing in Ana Faria's "Jovens Cantores de Lisboa" when she was 8 years old. She was also in plays directed by Filipe La Feria such as "Jamim ou o Sonho do Cinema" and "Godspell" at the age of 10. After a brief interruption, when she was discovered an interest in comics and illustration, she went back to live singing and joined Flor-de-Lis last year. Daniela, alongside with Pedro Marques on percussion, Jose Camach on guitar, Jorge Marques on cavaquinho, Paulo Pereira on flute and Ana Sofia Campea on accordion make up the Portugal folk music group known as Flor-de-lis.


 * Song Information:** "Todas as ruas do amor" (All the streets of love) is a song that will be the Porutguese entry to the ** [|Eurovision Song Contest 2009]. The song was composed by Paulo Pereira and Pedro Marques. The song was the winner of the Festive de Canc [|ão]   contest on February 28, 2009, receiving maximum votes from the juries, and coming second in the public televote. The song will now compete for Portugal in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2009, where Flor-de-Lis will perform 16th in the running order, following with Finland's [|Waldo's People] with"Lose Control" and preceding with [|Malta]'s [|Chiara] with "What If We".

The song "Todas as ruas do amor" has a very vibrant and unique sound, with constant harmony and combination of different traditional instruments. Daniela Varela has a very beautiful, soothing voice throughout the song, showing great emotion and singing high and low notes in Portugese. Most popular music today is born out of drugs, greed and hate, "Todas as ruas do amor" seems to be the opposite. It maintains a sweetness/soothing care for one another instead of bashing each other through the music created, as some artists often portray today. There are a variety of Portugese, traditional instruments (flute, accordion, guitars and drums) being played together at different parts of the song. "Todas as ruas do amor" keeps traditional rhythm, and is sung in their own language, showing the pride of a country in its musical heritage.

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[|Flor-de-Lis] was chosen to represent Portugal in Eurovision by winning the Festival da Cancao. Flor-de-Lis competed against 11 other artists in the final of the competition. Originally starting with 24 artists in the competition, all artists were required to perfom songs in Portuguese that were by Portuguese composers. Each performer received votes from a jury and televoting from different regions in Portugal. Flor-de-Lis won the competition with a total of 22 votes, 12 from the jury and 10 from the televoters. There was some controversy due to the fact that another performer, Luciana Abreu, was more popular with the public and received more votes from the televoters than Flor-de-Lis. When Flor-de-Lis decided to compete in the Festival Da Cancao, their goal was just to qualify. Now their goal is to show their music to the world, the best they can.
 * Narrative of the entry:** The beginnings of Flor-de-Lis are closely linked to Pedro Marques' participation as a percussionist in the "Adufe" project, first conceived by Jose Salguiero as an attraction for Expo-98, and which focused on traditional Portuguese instruments. The resulting success led to several national and international events being held between 1999 and 2000, unearthing musician Pedro Marques' desire to explore the vast wealth of Portuguese music in conjunction with musical elements from other parts of the world. The project began to take shape in 2001, with the participation of several musicians in recording sessions, one of whom was Paulo Pereira, who has stuck to wind instruments ever since. In recent years the skeletons of the songs have been put together naturally, in a process involving several different approaches and instrumentalists.


 * Eurovision History:** Portugal has entered the Eurovision song contest 42 times and has missed on 3 contests since the country's debut in 1964. Portugal has never won the contest, being the longest country in the contest without a win. Their best place was at the 1996 contest, when [|Lúcia Moniz] came sixth for Portugal. Portugal has never finished in the top five of any contest.

Finland's victory in 2006 Eurovision Song Contest, provided an unfortunate side effect for Portugal, as they now have sole possession of the record for most Eurovision entries without a victory. Indeed it's even worse than that, because with over 40 previous entries, the Portuguese are still waiting for their first Top 5 result. Since the semi-final process was introduced to Eurovision in 2004, Portugal has only made the final one on one occasion, when Vania Fernandes took Senhora do Mar to 13th place in Belgrade in 2008.

 The following countries have qualified for the grand final this Saturday, 16th May:
 * **Turkey** - Hadise - Düm tek tek
 * **Sweden** - Malene Ernmann - La voix
 * **Israel** - Noa & Mira Awad - There must be another way
 * **Portugal** - Flor-de-Lis - Todas as ruas do amor
 * **Malta** - Chiara - What if we
 * **Finland** - Waldo's People - Lose control
 * **Bosnia & Herzegovina** - Regina - Bistra voda
 * **Romania** - Elena Georghe - The Balkan girls
 * **Armenia** - Inga & Anush - Jan jan
 * **Iceland** - Yohanna - Is it true?

"The Portuguese representatives in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, Flor-de-Lis, performed their entry Todas As Ruas De Amorin front of colourful LED screens, depicting spring flowers, clouds and a rainbow in their first rehearsal today. The band performed with tradition instruments on stage, and they showed everyone that they are true musicians through and through."