Singer
Simone de Oliveira

Simone de Oliveira, GCIH (born 11 February 1938) is a Portuguese singer and actress. Simone was born in Lisbon, where she started singing in high school. Simone represented Portugal in Eurovision Song Contest 1965 with Sol De Inverno, their very first entry. Her true breakthrough came in 1969 with the song "Desfolhada Portuguesa", with lyrics by José Carlos Ary dos Santos and music by Nuno Nazareth Fernandes. The song was a great success in Po ... rtugal, with innovative lyrics at the time of the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. Simone went onto present this song for Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 in Madrid. Despite her popularity in Portugal, this song was not successful at the Eurovision, getting only 4 votes. She has starred in a number of television roles, as well as Portuguese movies. Simone is also a breast cancer survivor. Eurovision Song Contest 1965 Entry for Portugal Performer: Simone de Oliviera Song title: Sol De Inverno Song writer(s): Jeronimo Bragança Song composer(s): Carlos Nobrega e Sousa Sang In Position : 12 Final Position: 13 Total Points: 1 Italy and its national broadcaster RAI hosted this year's contest for the first time. The number of participants was the highest ever as 18 countries took part. After a year of absence, Sweden returned to the competition and Ireland debuted. Belgium, Germany, Finland and Spain all scored nul points while Luxembourg won for the second time with the highly controversial Poupée De Cire, Poupée De Son sung by teenager France Gall which later went on to be a massive hit in almost all European countries. Swedish participant Ingvar Wixell performed his song -originally called Annorstädes Vals - in English instead of Swedish while all the other participants sang in their native languages. This incident led to a rule demanding all participants should perform their songs in their respective national languages. For the first time, the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast not only by the European Broadcasting Union, but also by Intervision, its Eastern European counterpart. Eurovision Song Contest 1969 Entry for Portugal Performer: Simone de Oliveira Song title: Desfolhada Portuguesa Song writer(s): José Carlos Ary dos Santos Song composer(s): Nuño Nazareth Fernandes Sang In Position: 15 Final Position: 15 Total Points: 4 For the first time in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, the outcome of the voting resulted in a tie for the first place. Four countries gained 18 points each: France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. Since there was no solution for this situation, all four countries were declared winners. Luckily, there were four medals available to the four winning singers - the four medals were intended for the winning singer and three winning songwriters. The four winners differed a lot from one another: France had a haunting ballad performed by Frida Boccara, the Netherlands sent in Lenny Kuhr with a guitar, Spain and Salomé performed the energetic Vivo Cantando whereas the star from the British islands, Lulu, had a happy, clap-along song. However, having four winners caused lots of criticism from the media and several TV-stations re-considered participating in the following Eurovision Song Contest. Had the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest still attracted 16 countries, the number went down to only 12 in the 1970 edition of the contest. See more [+]