| Year: | 1969 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Broadcaster: | Portuguese: [[Radiotelevisão Portuguesa]]|i=no (RTP) |
| Preselection: | Portuguese: [[Festival da Canção|Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa]]|i=no 1969 |
| Preselection Date: | 24 February 1969 |
| Song: | Desfolhada portuguesa |
| Final Result: | 15th, 4 points |
Portugal was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 with the song "Portuguese: [[Desfolhada portuguesa]]|i=no", composed by Nuno Nazareth Fernandes, with lyrics by Ary dos Santos, and performed by Simone de Oliveira. The Portuguese participating broadcaster, Portuguese: [[Radiotelevisão Portuguesa]]|i=no (RTP), selected its entry at the Portuguese: Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa|i=no 1969. Actually, de Oliveira was not the authors' first choice to defend the song at the national final, having even been invited to a week of the event. This was her second participation in Eurovision, having already represented Portugal in the .
Portuguese: [[Radiotelevisão Portuguesa]]|i=no (RTP) held the Portuguese: Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa|i=no 1969 at the Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon on 24 February 1969, hosted by Lurdes Norberto. It was the first time that the competition was held in front of an audience. Ten songs took part in the final. Ferrer Trindade conducted all but two songs.[1] 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.[2]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Conductor | Votes | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simone de Oliveira | "Desfolhada portuguesa" | Ferrer Trindade | 92 | 1 | |
| 2 | Daniel | "Os fios da esperança" | Ferrer Trindade | 9 | 8 | |
| 3 | Teresa Paula Brito | "Buscando um horizonte" | 6 | 10 | ||
| 4 | Lilly Tchiumba | "Flor Bailarina" | 7 | 9 | ||
| 5 | Valério Silva | "Sol da manhã" | Manuel Viegas | 33 | 3 | |
| 6 | Madalena Iglésias | "Canção para um poeta" | Ferrer Trindade | 11 | 6 | |
| 7 | Artur Garcia | "Sombra de ninguém" | 11 | 6 | ||
| 8 | Duo Ouro Negro | "Tenho Amor Para Amar" | 49 | 2 | ||
| 9 | Fernando Tordo | "Cantiga" | 23 | 5 | ||
| 10 | Maria da Fé | "Vento do norte" | José Pereira Mesquita | 27 | 4 |
| + Detailed Distrital Jury Votes | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Draw | Song | Total | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Desfolhada portuguesa" | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 92 | |
| 2 | "Os fios da esperança" | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | "Buscando um horizonte" | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | "Flor Bailarina" | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | ||||||||||||||||
| 5 | "Sol da manhã" | 2 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 33 | ||||||||
| 6 | "Canção para um poeta" | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||||||||||||
| 7 | "Sombra de ninguém" | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | ||||||||||||||
| 8 | "Tenho Amor Para Amar" | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 49 | |||||||
| 9 | "Cantiga" | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 23 | ||||||||||
| 10 | "Vento do norte" | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 27 |
On the night of the final Oliveira performed 15th in the running order, following France and preceding Finland. At the close of the voting the song had received 4 points, coming 15th in the field of 16 competing countries.[3] The orchestra during the Portuguese entry was conducted by Ferrer Trindade.[4]
The Portuguese people followed the minute the presence of Simone de Oliveira in Eurovision, through the reports emitted by the radio and newspapers of that time. It was a great disappointment when it became known that Oliveira and the choristers were unwell on the eve of the event due to having eaten spoiled apple pie, which forced them to undergo medical intervention.[5] Fortunately, this episode did not prevent Simone, the two members of the choir (Maria Alexandre de Brito and Natália Rodrigues de Matos) and the guitarist (António Luís Gomes) from taking the stage of the Teatro Real.
Despite the poor placing, when Simone returned by train from Madrid to Santa Apolónia Station, in Lisbon, she was received with the biggest demonstration ever given to a singer by the Portuguese people, even at a time when demonstrations were prohibited.[6] [7] The regime was unable to stop the strength of the people who made a point of paying homage to their representative at the Eurovision and sang "Desfolhada portuguesa" in unison. Simone de Oliveira was the target of the biggest demonstration ever made to a Portuguese singer.