Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971

Portugal was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971 with the song "Menina do alto da serra" (lit. "Girl from the top of the mountain"), composed by Nuno Nazareth Fernandes, with lyrics by Ary dos Santos, and performed by Tonicha. The Portuguese participating broadcaster, Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP), selected its entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa 1971.

Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Participating broadcaster	Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP)
Country	Portugal
Selection process	Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa 1971
Selection date	11 February 1971
Competing entry
Song	"Menina do alto da serra"
Artist	Tonicha
Songwriters	Nuno Nazareth Fernandes Ary dos Santos
Placement
Final result	9th, 83 points
Participation chronology
◄1969 • 1971 • 1972►

Before Eurovision

Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa 1971

Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) held the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa 1971 at the Cinema Tivoli [pt] in Lisbon on 11 February 1971, hosted by Ana Maria Lucas and Henrique Mendes. Nine songs took part in the final. Jorge Costa Pinto conducted all the songs. The results were determined by a distrital jury, composed by three members, each had 5 votes to be distributed among the songs it intended to award, making a total of 15 votes per district.

Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa - 11 February 1971

Draw	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Daphne	"Verde pino"	5	7
2	Tonicha	"Menina do alto da serra"	103	1
3	Intróito	"Palavras abertas"	13	5
4	Efe 5	"Rosa, roseira"	6	6
5	Hugo Maia de Loureiro	"Crónica de um dia"	26	4
6	Paulo de Carvalho	"Flor sem tempo"	69	2
7	Lenita Gentil	"Anda ver o sol"	2	9
8	Fernando Tordo	"Cavalo à solta"	42	3
9	Duarte Mendes	"Adolescente"	4	8

Detailed Distrital Jury Votes

Draw	Song	Aveiro	Beja	Braga	Bragança	Castelo Branco	Coimbra	Évora	Faro	Guarda	Leiria	Lisbon	Portalegre	Porto	Santarém	Setúbal	Viana do Castelo	Vila Real	Viseu	Total
1	"Verde pino"					3						1	1							5
2	"Menina do alto da serra"	11	7	1	9	2	1	6	1	12	4	10	5	8	8	3	2	3	10	103
3	"Palavras abertas"				1			1	5	1	1					1		3		13
4	"Rosa, roseira"								5										1	6
5	"Crónica de um dia"					3	12		1		4		1	2					3	26
6	"Flor sem tempo"	1	3	9	5	5	2	6		2	4	2	2	2	3	5	11	6	1	69
7	"Anda ver o sol"					2														2
8	"Cavalo à solta"	3	4	5					3		1	2	6	3	4	6	2	3		42
9	"Adolescente"		1					2			1									4

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Tonicha performed 15th in the running order, following Netherlands and preceding Yugoslavia. At the close of the voting the song had received 83 points, coming 9th in the field of 18 competing countries, at the time Portugal's highest Eurovision finish.^[1]

The orchestra during the Portuguese entry was conducted by Jorge Costa Pinto.^[2]

Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated at the venue in Dublin, and were brought on stage during the voting sequence to present their points.^[3] The Portuguese jury members were Pedro Albergaria and Luís Filipe Costa.^[4]

Voting

Points awarded to Portugal[5] Score Country 10 points  Spain 9 points 8 points  France 7 points 6 points  Monaco  United Kingdom  Yugoslavia 5 points  Finland  Germany  Luxembourg  Netherlands  Norway 4 points  Austria  Belgium  Italy 3 points  Ireland  Malta 2 points  Sweden   Switzerland

Points awarded by Portugal[5] Score Country 10 points 9 points  Netherlands 8 points  Finland  Monaco 7 points  Germany  Spain  United Kingdom 6 points  Belgium  Luxembourg   Switzerland 5 points  Austria  France  Norway 4 points  Ireland  Yugoslavia 3 points  Italy  Sweden 2 points  Malta