Portugal was represented by Tonicha, with the song "Menina do alto da serra" ('Girl from the top of the mountain'), at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 April in Dublin. "Menina do alto da serra" was chosen as the Portuguese entry at the Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa on 11 February.
The Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa 1971 was held at the Cinema Tivoli [pt]inLisbon, hosted by Ana Maria Lucas and Henrique Mendes. Nine songs took part in the final. Jorge Costa Pinto conducted all the songs.[1] The results were determined by a distrital jury, composed by three members, each had 5 votes to be distributed among the songs it intended to award, making a total of 15 votes per district.[2]
Grande Prémio TV da Canção Portuguesa - 11 February 1971
On the night of the final Tonicha performed 15th in the running order, following Netherlands and preceding Yugoslavia.
At the close of the voting the song had received 83 points, coming 9th in the field of 18 competing countries, at the time Portugal's highest Eurovision finish.[3][4] The orchestra during the Portuguese entry was conducted by Jorge Costa Pinto.[5]
Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated at the venue in Dublin, and were brought on stage during the voting sequence to present their points.[6] The Portuguese jury members were Pedro Albergaria and Luís Filipe Costa.[7]
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 142–168. ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn, United Kingdom: Telos Publishing. p. 60. ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.