Portugal participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „Todas as ruas do amor“ written by Pedro Marques and Paulo Pereira. The song was performed by the group Flor-de-Lis. The Portuguese broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) organised the national final Festival da Canção 2009 in order to select the Portuguese entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The competition took place on 28 February 2009 where „Todas as ruas do amor“ performed by Flor-de-Lis emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from twenty regional juries and a public televote.
Portugal was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 16, „Todas as ruas do amor“ was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Portugal placed eighth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 70 points. In the final, Portugal performed in position 6 and placed fifteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 57 points.
Festival da Canção 2009
Festival da Canção 2009 was the 45th edition of Festival da Canção that selected Portugal’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Twelve entries competed in the competition which took place on 28 February 2009 at the Teatro Camões in Lisbon. The show was hosted by Sílvia Alberto and broadcast on RTP1, RTP África and RTP Internacional as well as online via the broadcaster’s official website rtp.pt.
Competing entries
Artists and composers that possessed Portuguese citizenship were able to submit their entries for the competition between 2 December 2008 and 12 January 2009. Songs were required to be submitted in the Portuguese language. A jury panel consisting of Portuguese Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest José Poiares, singer-songwriter Tozé Brito and music producers Fernando Martins and Ramón Galarza selected thirty entries for an online vote from 393 submissions received, which were revealed on 19 January 2010. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision Song Contest entrants Nucha, who represented Portugal in the 1990 contest, and Luciana Abreu, who represented Portugal in the 2005 contest as part of the duo 2B. On 28 January 2009, „Não está“ performed by Miguel Cervini was withdrawn from the competition due to disagreements with the online voting process. On 4 February 2009, „Sinto sentido“ performed by Pedro Duvalle was disqualified from the competition due to the song having been performed prior to the competition.
Online vote
The twenty-three competing entries were released online via rtp.pt on 19 January 2009 and users were able to vote for their favourite songs each day until 30 January 2009. 117,639 valid votes were received at the conclusion of the voting period and the twelve entries with the most votes advanced to the final, which were revealed on 31 January 2009. „Lua sem luar“ performed by Nuno Norte, which placed thirteenth, advanced to the final following the disqualification of „Sinto sentido“ performed by Pedro Duvalle which placed among the top twelve entries.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Votes | Place |
| 1 | Lyana | „Vivo para a paz (Peace)“ | 1,061 | 21 |
| 2 | Nucha | „Tudo está na tua mão“ | 7 | 8 |
| 3 | Flor-de-Lis | „Todas as ruas do amor“ | 7,024 | 7 |
| 4 | Tayti | „Amore mio, amore mio“ | 5,705 | 12 |
| 5 | Pedro Daniel | „Sem ti não quero acordar“ | 2,774 | 15 |
| 7 | Romana | „Acordem olhos doirados“ | 7,087 | 6 |
| 8 | Angie | „Sonhar sem limites“ | 3,073 | 14 |
| 9 | Nuno and Fábia | „Não demores (quero-te aquecer)“ | 10,42 | 2 |
| 10 | Infantes de Sagres | „O beijo de quando te vais embora“ | 2,634 | 16 |
| 11 | Fernando Pereira | „É o amor“ | 6,321 | 10 |
| 12 | Luciana Abreu | „Juntos vamos conseguir (Yes We Can)“ | 11,193 | 1 |
| 13 | Sérgio Lucas | „Procuro-me em mim“ | 2,108 | 17 |
| 14 | Eva Danin | „Amor mais forte que o vento“ | 10,015 | 3 |
| 15 | Jackpot | „Há sempre um mas“ | 1,926 | 18 |
| 16 | Francisco Andrade | „Voar é ver“ | 6,782 | 9 |
| 17 | Armando Gama | „Amor mais-que-perfeito“ | 336 | 23 |
| 18 | Ana Sofia | „O meu planeta especial“ | 809 | 22 |
| 19 | André Rodrigues | „Não vou voltar a mim“ | 8,869 | 4 |
| 20 | Nuno Norte | „Lua sem luar“ | 5,527 | 13 |
| 21 | Filipa Batista | „O teu lugar“ | 7,911 | 5 |
| 22 | Flávio | „Jura que ainda me amas“ | 1,856 | 19 |
| 23 | Daniel Costa | „Mais uma vez (este mar salgado)“ | 1,335 | 20 |
Final
The final took place on 28 February 2009. The twelve entries selected by the online vote competed and the winner, „Todas as ruas do amor“ performed by Flor-de-Lis, was selected based on the 50/50 combination of votes of twenty regional juries and a public televote. Hip Hop BCM and Teresa Radamanto performed as the interval acts.
Final – 28 February 2009
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Jury | Televote | Televote | Total | Place |
| Votes | Points | Percentage | Points | |||||
| 1 | Nucha | „Tudo está na tua mão“ | 78 | 3 | 0,02 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| 2 | Romana | „Acordem olhos doirados“ | 124 | 6 | 0,03 | 2 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | Filipa Batista | „O teu lugar“ | 130 | 7 | 0,06 | 5 | 12 | 5 |
| 4 | André Rodrigues | „Não vou voltar a mim“ | 31 | 1 | 0,02 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| 5 | Luciana Abreu | „Juntos vamos conseguir (Yes We Can)“ | 107 | 4 | 0,28 | 12 | 16 | 3 |
| 6 | Nuno Norte | „Lua sem luar“ | 143 | 8 | 0,05 | 4 | 12 | 4 |
| 7 | Tayti | „Amore mio, amore mio“ | 21 | 0 | 0,04 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| 8 | Fernando Pereira | „É o amor“ | 15 | 0 | 0,02 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
| 9 | Eva Danin | „Amar mais forte que o vento“ | 109 | 5 | 0,07 | 7 | 12 | 6 |
| 10 | Francisco Andrade | „Voar é ver“ | 145 | 10 | 0,09 | 8 | 18 | 2 |
| 11 | Flor-de-Lis | „Todas as ruas do amor“ | 217 | 12 | 0,25 | 10 | 22 | 1 |
| 12 | Nuno and Fábia | „Não demores (quero-te aquecer)“ | 40 | 2 | 0,07 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
Detailed Regional Jury Votes
| Draw | Song | Ave iro | Beja | Bra ga | Brag ança | Castelo Branco | Coim bra | Év ora | Fa ro | Mad eira | Guar da | Lei ria | Lis bon | Azo res | Porta legre | Por to | Santa rém | Setú bal | Viana do Castelo | Vila Real | Vi seu | Total score |
| 1 | „Tudo está na tua mão“ | 8 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 78 | |
| 2 | „Acordem olhos doirados“ | 10 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 124 |
| 3 | „O teu lugar“ | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 130 |
| 4 | „Não vou voltar a mim“ | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 31 | ||||||||
| 5 | „Juntos vamos conseguir (Yes We Can)“ | 5 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 107 |
| 6 | „Lua sem luar“ | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 12 | 143 |
| 7 | „Amore mio, amore mio“ | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 21 | |||||||||||||||
| 8 | „É o amor“ | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 15 | |||||||||||
| 9 | „Amar mais forte que o vento“ | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 109 | |
| 10 | „Voar é ver“ | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 145 | |
| 11 | „Todas as ruas do amor“ | 12 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 217 |
| 12 | „Não demores (quero-te aquecer)“ | 2 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 40 |