ESC 2022: Portugal scores with “Saudade, saudade” by Maro

Portugal chose a quiet song for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Singer Maro successfully passed the preliminary round with “Saudade, saudade” and also reached the final in Turin. There you start as a third participant.

As the last country participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, Portugal chose to represent Turin. In the early morning of March 13, singer Maro was the winner of the traditional preliminary round of the Da Cansao Festival. With “Saudade, saudade” (“longing, longing”) she was not only able to liquidate the jury, but was also ahead of the audience. In the end she clearly won the final, which many considered an equal. The show was moderated by Filomena Cautilla, who also presented at ESC in Lisbon in 2018, and Vasco Palmeram. As the Portuguese candidates for the previous year, The black mamba had an appearance.

Maru started his music career in the USA

Mariana Seca aka Maru was born on October 30, 1994 and is a singer and songwriter. “Saudade, saudade” was co-written with John Blanda and includes lyrics in English and Portuguese. Unlike the semi-finals, where she was alone on stage, she performed in the Portuguese preliminary round final with a choir seated around her. Although Maro comes from a musical family, she initially wanted to become a veterinarian, but then studied and lived in the United States, where she released her own music for the first time. She has been singing since the age of eleven and plays the piano, electric bass and guitar. As she told Eurovisionworld, Jessie J has opened parties and is a fan of Justin Bieber.

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However, these effects cannot be heard in their ESC song. “Saouda, Sauda” lives from feeling the singer’s voice. All Portugal fell in love with this song, even if there were interesting alternatives at the Festival de Cancao. The universal piece “Dégrá.dê” by Pongo & Tristany or the beautiful musical number “Fome de viagem” by Inés Homme de Mello was definitely attracting attention in Turin. The fear that Maru’s song would ripple too much for some viewers wasn’t true at least in the first ESC semifinals. Maru is allowed to perform again in the final on May 14.

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