| Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Portugal | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Festival da Canção 2008 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 9 March 2008 | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Vânia Fernandes | |||
| Selected song | "Senhora do mar (negras águas)" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) |
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| Finals performance | ||||
| Semi-final result | Qualified (2nd, 120 points) | |||
| Final result | 13th, 69 points | |||
| Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Senhora do mar (negras águas)" written by Andrej Babić and Carlos Coelho. The song was performed by Vânia Fernandes. The Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) organised the national final Festival da Canção 2008 in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. The competition took place on 9 March 2008 where the winner was selected exclusively by public televoting. "Senhora do mar (negras águas)" performed by Vânia Fernandes emerged as the winner with 17,650 votes.
Portugal was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 22 May 2008. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 19, "Senhora do mar (negras águas)" was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 24 May. This marked the first time that Portugal qualified to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest from a semi-final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004. It was later revealed that Portugal placed second out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 120 points. In the final, Portugal performed in position 13 and placed thirteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 69 points.