Portugal: Will the winner of Festival da Canção go to Eurovision 2026?

The grand final of Portugal's Festival da Canção 2026 takes place this Sunday morning in Australia, where 10 acts will compete to represent the Iberian nation at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.

Or will they? This year, Portuguese broadcaster RTP faces an unusual situation where most of the participating acts in the national final have already ruled out representing their country on the Eurovision stage.

Read out to find out all the details, including the three acts who may still be in the running to represent Portugal.

How has this happened?

Festival da Canção is one of the longest-running Eurovision national finals, with the winner of the Portuguese song festival having proceeded to represent Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest almost every year since 1964.

This year, however, a change has quietly been made to the festival's rules stating that the winner of Festival da Canção 2026 will merely be "eligible" to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest.

This mimics the process in other participating countries such as Italy, where the winner of the Sanremo Music Festival only receives a right of refusal to participate at Eurovision.

Widely understood as a response to controversy in Portugal regarding Israel's ongoing participation at the contest, the rule change had the effect of separating participation in the national final from participation at Eurovision, thus providing some breathing room.

This rule change would become highly significant following the European Broadcasting Union's annual congress, following which it was confirmed that Israeli broadcaster KAN would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna.

While Portuguese broadcaster RTP had not confirmed their participation in Vienna prior to the congress, they did so quickly after the meeting, amid reports of controversy at the broadcaster as well as the news that Ireland, Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain would boycott the contest.

Which acts have ruled themselves out?

Within days after the announcement of the outcome from EBU's annual congress, Portuguese artists began to announce that they would refuse to participate at Eurovision 2026 in the event that were successful in winning the national final.

On 10 December, 17 artists (between them representing 12 of the acts at this year's national final) signed an open letter confirming that they would boycott participation at the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest.

The acts where either the performer or the songwriter confirmed that they would not be participating are:

• Evaya

• Francisco Fontes

• Gonçalo Gomes

• Jacaréu and Ana Margarida

• Marquise

• Mario Marta (via songwriter Djodje)

• Bateu Matou

• Dinis Mota

• Nunca Mates o Madarim

• Silvana Peres (via songwriter Rita Dias)'

• Joao Ribeiro (via songwriter Cristina Branco)

• Inês Sousa

They were joined in the following days by AGRIDOCE, who also confirmed his non-participation. This left just three of the 16 participating acts in the running for Eurovision 2026.

RTP subsequently issued a statement in response to the boycotts emphasizing that their intention remained to participate at Eurovision 2026.

Which acts are still in the running?

Only two acts have expressly confirmed that they will proceed to Eurovision 2026 in the event that they win Festival da Canção on the weekend.

The first, Bandidos do Cante with their song Rosa, are a five-piece vocal group from the Alenteje region of Portugal.

The second, Andre Amaro, will perform his song Dá-Me a Tua Mão.

A third artist, Sandrino with Disposto a tudo, has remained silent on the question of participation, neither confirming that he will participate nor explicitly confirming a boycott.

All three of the above artists qualified through the semifinals of Festival da Canção to the final, although Andre Amaro only made it through as the televote wild card in the first semifinal.

RTP has not confirmed what will happen in the event that the national final is taken out by one of the boycotting acts. In the past, broadcasters have often offered the participation rights to the second or third place-getters in similar situations (such as Germany in 2015, Ukraine in 2022 or Montenegro in 2025). However, other options such as an internal selection have not been ruled out.

The broadcaster's blushes may also be spared, with Bandidos do Cante one of the hot favourites to win the competition this weekend.

In any event, the end of Festival da Canção for this year may only be the beginning of the search for a Portuguese Eurovision act - only time will tell who (if anybody) will represent Portugal at Eurovision 2026.

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