Amar Pelos Dois

Album: Eurovision Song Contest: Kyiv 2017 (2017)
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Songfacts®:

  • Representing Portugal, jazz-soul singer Salvador Sobral won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest with this stripped-back piano ballad about a lost love. The song title translates into English as "Love For the Both of Us."
  • Sobral was the only Eurovision competitor who opted for an intimate performance on the event's smaller stage rather than filling the huge main stage. On accepting the award, Sobral used his victory speech to have a dig at the razzmatazz surrounding the Euro-trance tunes that dominated the evening. "We live in a world of fast food music" he said. "This is a victory for music… music isn't fireworks, music is feeling."
  • Sobral expanded on his decision to go small, during the post event press conference.

    "People listen to songs because they're thrown at you", he said. "You have to like this because we're going to play it sixteen times a day and force you to like it. [But 'Amar Pelos Dois'] is music with content, an emotional song with a beautiful lyrical message and harmony - things people are not used to listening to these days."

    "If I can help to bring some change to music I would be really joyful," Sobral added. "And I hope it will encourage people to bring different things and all sorts of music to future editions of this contest."
  • The melancholic song was written by Salvador Sobral's sister, Luísa Sobral. She believes the tune's appeal to the Eurovision voters stemmed from her brother's intimate performance. "I could have given him 'Happy Birthday' and he would have won," Luísa Sobral said. "With this performance I could see in his eyes every word."
  • Sobral's victory was Portugal's first ever win in the contest since its debut in 1964. It ended the longest drought in Eurovision history (53 years).
  • "Amar Pelos Dois" marked the first time a song sung entirely in a language other than English had won since Serbian singer Marija Šerifovic won with "Molitva" in 2007.

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