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

21/04/2024, 12:28 How Portugal’s 1974 Eurovision entry toppled the country’s fascist regime | Portugal | The Guardian
The Observer Portugal
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
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Huge crowds came out on to the streets of Lisbon after the Carnation Revolution on 25 April
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Alex Fernandes
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In musical terms, Portugal’s entry for the final of the Eurovision song contest
on 6 April 1974 was not what you would typically call a success.
E Depois do Adeus (And After the Goodbye), performed by Paulo de €199 €269
Carvalho, with lyrics by José Niza, came joint last with Norway, Germany and
Switzerland, narrowly avoiding an embarrassing nul points and only slightly
redeemed by the fact that the winning song that year was nothing less catchy
than Abba’s Waterloo.
But while De Carvalho would not go on to enjoy chart-topping glory like his
€159 €169
better-known Swedish counterparts, E Depois do Adeus left a different kind
of legacy – just a few weeks later, it changed the course of history. Fresh fashion for spring
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By 1974, the situation within the Portuguese military had reached breaking
point. Portugal was in its 13th year of fighting a colonial war on three African
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By April, plans to topple the regime
were well under way, coordinated by
Maj Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho.
At the time, Carlos Almada

Contreiras, the movement’s navy
liaison, was stationed within the
navy’s communication centre in the
ministerial buildings that ring
Lisbon’s Commerce Square on the
edge of the Tagus. Carvalho had
given him a problem to solve.
Paulo de Carvalho singing E Depois do
“There’s this plan of operations,
Adeus, Portugal’s 1974-Eurovision song contest
entry, which was used to trigger the Carnation
which was distributed [among
Revolution. Photograph: Shutterstock
movement officers] by hand, or even
at times by word of mouth – but then
it was necessary, close to the start of the operation, to say across the country:
‘This plan is going ahead… there’s no turning back.’”
The challenge, Contreiras recalls 50 years later, was to “transmit a signal that
could be heard across the country that confirmed the operation”.
He adds: “The communication systems of the three military branches – army,

navy and air force – weren’t interconnected, so we couldn’t use them. That’s
when I remembered something I’d read in this book.”
On a trip to Spain, Contreiras had been given a copy of The White Book on the
Change of Government in Chile, edited by Augusto Pinochet, which detailed
that country’s recent military coup. It described a military warning system
that involved playing a string of pre-agreed pop songs through civilian radio
stations.
If the movement could convince a radio station that covered mainland

Portugal to play a specific song at a prearranged time, that could be the signal
to start the whole operation.
But what station and what song? Carvalho had a connection with a corporal
who had served under him in the war and was now working as an announcer
at the Lisbon Associated Broadcasters.
Separately, Contreiras had been introduced to the journalist Álvaro Guerra,

who had a contact with the Catholic station Rádio Renascença and its
progressive late-night programme Limite.
Having access to two stations was good, especially as it soon emerged that
Lisbon Associated Broadcasters only covered greater Lisbon. It would trigger
operations in the capital, and Rádio Renascença in the rest of the country. As
for what songs were to be played, the movement leaders agreed – they
wanted something symbolic, that asserted their vision for Portugal.
Residents on the streets of a working-class district of Lisbon after the coup that brought down
the dictatorship in April 1974. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A tradition of “interventionist” music had long been present among the

opposition to Portugal’s stifling dictatorship, typified by the folk singer José
“Zeca” Afonso.
Linked to the underground revolutionary left, Afonso had an extensive back

catalogue of sharp, poetic protest songs, many of which had been banned by
the state censor. His opposition to the dictatorship had lost him his teaching
job in the late 1960s and his activism had often landed him in prison.
Afonso’s songs were hugely popular among soldiers and officers on the
African front, where their lyrics were adapted into attacks on the
incompetence of their superiors.
Initially, the movement had chosen the song Venham Mais Cinco (Bring on
Five More) – but that is when the problems started. Venham Mais Cinco was
banned by the state censor. Not only that, but the movement’s contact at
Lisbon Associated Broadcasters was nervous about playing a protest song at
all – it risked attracting too much attention.
With the planned date for the coup fast approaching, Carvalho suggested
that the announcer choose something else – “some banality” that would not
raise any eyebrows. That choice was E Depois do Adeus.
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While the song itself was politically uncontroversial, its author,Niza, was a
socialist activist who had produced Afonso’s records for the label Orfeu.
Rádio Renascença, on the other hand, could afford to be a little edgier with
its music – the officers eventually settled on Grândola, Vila Morena
(Grândola, Swarthy Town) – an Afonso song that had not found its way on to
the banned lists, but whose lyrics still spoke of liberation, struggle and
solidarity.
Even so, given the last-minute nature of the conspiracy, the movement’s
contacts at Limite had to quickly record a performed reading of the first verse
as a preamble, so that it could plausibly slot into the programme’s poetry
segment.
At 10.55pm on 24 April 1974, the voice of João Paulo Diniz crackled out to
greater Lisbon, introducing Paulo de Carvalho and E Depois do Adeus. Navy
liaison Contreiras, despite being within the station’s stated range, could not
pick it up on his radio – an officer colleague in the city centre had to call him
to confirm the song had been played.
Contreiras then gave the nod to Guerra for the journalist to take the short
drive to Rádio Renascença and make sure Grândola, Vila Morena was aired.
Guerra’s colleague João Paulo Coelho, who had been left out of the loop,
almost ruined the whole plan by loading up an advertising reel moments
before Grândola, Vila Morena was meant to come on.
Manuel Tomás, the only other person in the room fully

aware of the conspiracy, nudged the sound technician’s hand and forced a
track change – just in time.
Grândola, Vila Morena was broadcast across mainland Portugal at 12.20am on

25 April and the Movement of Captains had both their signals. Across the
country, a coordinated military operation quickly overwhelmed government
forces, culminating in the siege and eventual surrender of then prime
minister Marcelo Caetano in central Lisbon.
As the movement announced its intentions through occupied radio stations,

huge crowds of civilians took to the streets in a mass spontaneous surge of
popular support for the captains.
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.
Both E Depois do Adeus and Grândola, Vila Morena are forever embedded,
inextricably, in Portuguese history in a way their authors could never have
anticipated but would always cherish.
By the time Eurovision 1975 rolled around, Portugal was a very different
country – its colonial empire was being dismantled, its population was no
longer choking under the boot of fascism and the streets were alive with
revolutionary fervour.
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.
It was a song about light and music finally breaking through the darkness. It
placed 16th.
The Carnation Revolution: The Day Portugal’s Dictatorship Fell by Alex

Fernandes is published by Oneworld (£20). To support the Guardian and
Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may
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21/04/2024, 12:28 How Portugal’s 1974 Eurovision entry toppled the country’s fascist regime | Portugal | The Guardian

The Observer Portugal

How Portugal’s 1974 Eurovision entry

Moreover, the Portuguese armed

At the time, Carlos Almada

He adds: “The communication systems of the three military branches – army,

If the movement could convince a radio station that covered mainland

Separately, Contreiras had been introduced to the journalist Álvaro Guerra,

A tradition of “interventionist” music had long been present among the

Linked to the underground revolutionary left, Afonso had an extensive back

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Manuel Tomás, the only other person in the room fully

Grândola, Vila Morena was broadcast across mainland Portugal at 12.20am on

As the movement announced its intentions through occupied radio stations,

The Carnation Revolution: The Day Portugal’s Dictatorship Fell by Alex

Congratulations on being one of our top readers globally Article count on

Hang on, how many articles?

engaged and prolific readers, it would only be fair to support us financially

One-time Monthly Annual

€5 per month €10 per month Other

Continue Remind me in June

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