Amar Pelos Dois
Salvador Sobral
- Language
- Portuguese
- Released
- 2017
- Genre
- jazz
- Level
- A2-
- Difficulty score
- 540
- Special
- Eurovision
- Duration
- 3:05
How to study this song
Learning “Amar Pelos Dois” means 37 entries at A2- — 8 Portuguese words, 5 adjectives and 24 verb forms, every one taken from what the song actually says. Work through the glossary first: dia and preces are the words you will lean on most. This one leans on its verbs: 24 distinct forms against 5 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| PT | EN | ES | IT | FR | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dia | day | día | giorno | jour | dag | Tag |
| preces | prayers, pleas | plegarias, ruegos | preghiere | prières | gebeden, smeekbeden | Gebete, Bitten |
This card holds 6 more words. You meet them when you play the song.
Adjectives
| PT | EN | ES | IT |
|---|
What this song teaches you
Level · A2-
- Vocabulary words
- 8
- Adjectives
- 5
- Word combos
- 5
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 24
- Quiz questions
- 35
More Portuguese songs at this level
Background
About the song
«Amar Pelos Dois» is the song that gave Portugal its first victory in the Eurovision Song Contest, fifty-three years after the country first took part in 1964. It was written, composed and produced by Luísa Sobral, a singer-songwriter who had placed third in the first season of the Portuguese talent show «Ídolos», and it was sung by her younger brother Salvador. It was released on 10 March 2017 by Sons em Trânsito and Sony Music.
Salvador Sobral was born in Lisbon on 28 December 1989. He also passed through «Ídolos», finishing seventh in its third season in 2009, when he was twenty, and then left for Barcelona, where he studied at the Taller de Músics jazz school after starting a degree in psychology. He sang in bars and at Spanish festivals, and his first album, «Excuse Me», came out in 2016. That jazz background is audible in everything about the Eurovision entry.
Musically the song is a slow jazz waltz, in three-four time, with a touch of bossa nova. It lasts about three minutes and is built on piano and strings, without backing vocals. At a contest dominated by dance beats, pyrotechnics and English lyrics, Salvador performed it alone on a small satellite stage in the middle of the arena, in Portuguese, with almost no choreography. The contrast became the story of the year.
The lyrics are a quiet love letter. The singer tells someone that his life only started to mean something when he met them, and that before that he was worn out and had nothing to offer. He asks the person he loves to hear his pleas and come back, admitting that love is not something one can do alone. In the last lines he makes an offer: if the other heart will not give in, will not feel passion and does not want to risk suffering, then his own heart is ready to love for both of them. That closing idea is the title.
To reach Kyiv the song first had to win Festival da Canção 2017, the Portuguese national selection. It came second in its semi-final on 19 February and won the final on 5 March. At Eurovision in May it won the first semi-final and then the grand final with 758 points, winning both the jury vote and the public vote. After being handed the trophy, Salvador sang the song once more together with his sister.