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How Portugal’s 1974 Eurovision entry toppled the country’s fascist regime

Fifty years ago, a remarkable chain of events set in motion by the broadcast of a series of songs led to the fall of a dictatorship

E Depois do Adeus(And After the Goodbye), performed by Paulo de Carvalho, with lyrics by José Niza, came joint last with Norway, Germany and Switzerland, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing nul pointsand only slightly redeemed by the fact that the winning song that year was nothing less catchy than Abba’s Waterloo. Less than 24 hours after the first signal was aired, the oldest fascist dictatorship in Europe had fallen and Portugal’s transition to democracy, the Carnation Revolution – named after the flowers the surging populace spontaneously offered the soldiers on the streets – had begun. Portugal’s entry that year was fitting for a country that had just overthrown a brutal dictatorship and whose population was finding their footing in a new world: Madrugada (Dawn) by Duarte Mendes, a singer who had been one of the April captains, proudly bearing a red carnation on his lapel.

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