Just outside my top 10 are this year’s hosts. Regardless of whether you liked Salvador Sobral’s entry last year, few would begrudge Portugal its victory last year – almost 50 appearances at the contest without even a top 5, let alone a win, and finally, finally, they did it. And which means we all get to enjoy Lisbon. Could we enjoy a second year in a row in Europe’s sunny south west corner?

Portugal have always gone their own way at Eurovision, and while it took a long while for that to pay off, they haven’t changed that for their turn at hosting. The entries in their national final were defiantly Portuguese and distinct from other genres at Eurovision. The winner happened to be my favourite too, and I think once again, Portugal bring something different and dreamy to the contest. There’s a mystical flavour to this and beautifully sung. It’s the embodiment of Salvador’s comment on music being feeling.

While it shares similarities with last year in the sense it’s not your traditional Eurovision entry, and is completely Portuguese, it is still a different sort of song and actually I much prefer this to last year and is one of the best Portuguese entries I’ve heard.

The bookies don’t have this as one of the favourites, but much like Portugal last year, this could be quite a dark horse and could yet again connect with juries and televoters, and of course the love of the crowd in the arena will be there which could translate well on screen.

While I don’t think Cláudia (and the uncredited Isaura who is composer and makes a small singing cameo) will win, it’s not beyond possibilities that they might deliver one of Portugal’s best ever results.

Official music video (live performance):

Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest:

First entered: 1964

Appearances (excluding this year): 49

Best result: Winner in 2017

Last year’s result: Winner