1994 - Portugal
Performed by: Sara Tavares
Music by: João Carlos Campos de Sousa Mota Oliveira
Lyrics by: Rosa Lobato de Faria
Conductor: Thilo Krassman
Language: Portuguese
Placing: 8th (73 points)
Other versions: English


Sara Alexandra Lima Tavares (1 February 1978 – 19 November 2023) was a Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist. She was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. Second-generation Portuguese of Cape Verdean descent, she composed African-, Portuguese- and North American-influenced world music.

Tavares's parents were immigrants from Cape Verde who settled in Almada in the 1970s. She was born on 1 February 1978. While still a child, she was left in the care of an old woman when her father left the family and her mother moved to the south of the country with her younger siblings.

Tavares showed great musical promise from a young age; in 1994 she won the national television song contest Chuva de Estrelas, performing Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time". That same year, she won the Festival da Canção, that earned Tavares a slot in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest at the age of 16. Her winning song, "Chamar a Música," was featured on her debut EP, Sara Tavares & Shout (1996), where Tavares mixed gospel and funk with her native Portuguese influences.

Her debut album Mi Ma Bô was produced by Lokua Kanza and released in 1999.

In 2017, eight years after Xinti, Tavares released Fitxadu. The album was inspired in Lisbon's different African sounds and cultures and features a more electronic and urban sound than Tavares's previous works. The album received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album.

Tavares composed in Portuguese and Portuguese-based creole languages. Although Portuguese was the main language of her songs, her repertoire includes multilingual songs mixing Portuguese with Portuguese Creole and even English in the same song.

She won the 1993/1994 final of the Endemol song contest Chuva de Estrelas (performing Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time"), which helped her win the Portuguese Television Song Contest final in 1994, consequently earning a place in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song "Chamar a Música" which reached 8th place.

Tavares was also known for singing the European-Portuguese version of "God Help the Outcasts" for the Disney movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which won a Disney Award for the best version of the original song. She also won a Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Portuguese Singer in 2000.

In 2021, Tavares publicly revealed that she discovered she was bisexual at the age of 24. Sara Tavares died on 19 November 2023 in Lisbon, at age 45, from a brain tumour with which she had been diagnosed in 2009. The song Pé de choro by Huca which competed in Festival da Canção 2024, is a tribute to Tavares.


LYRICS:

Chamar a música

Esta noite vou ficar assim
Prisioneira desse olhar
De mel pousado em mim
Vou chamar a música
Pôr à prova a minha voz
Numa trova só p'ra nós

Esta noite vou beber licor
Como um filtro redentor
De amor, amor, amor
Vou chamar a música
Vou pegar na tua mão
Vou compor uma canção

Chamar a música, a música
Tê-la aqui tão perto
Como o vento do deserto
Acordado em mim

Chamar a música, a música
Musa dos meus temas
Nesta noite de açucenas
Abraçar-te apenas
É chamar a música

Esta noite não quero a tê-vê
Nem a folha do jornal
Banal que ninguém lê
Vou chamar a música
Murmurar um madrigal
Inventar um ritual

Esta noite vou servir um chá
Feito de ervas e jasmim
E aromas que não há
Vou chamar a música
Encontrar à flor de mim
Um poema de cetim

Chamar a música, a música
Tê-la aqui tão perto
Como o vento do deserto
Acordado em mim

Chamar a música, a música
Musa dos meus temas
Nesta noite de açucenas
Abraçar-te apenas
É chamar a música



TRANSLATION:

Call the music

Tonight I'm going to stay like this
A prisoner of that look
Of honey which is in me
I'm going to call the music
Going to test my voice
In a song just for the two of us

Tonight I'm going to drink alcohol
Like a forgiving filter
Of love, love, love
I'm going to call the music
Going to hold your hand
Going to compose a song

Call the music, the music
Having it so near me
Like the wind in the desert
Woken inside of me

Call the music, the music
The muse of my themes
In this night of strangeness
Just holding you
Is calling the music

Tonight I don't want TV
Nor the sheet of ordinary newspaper
That no one reads
I'll call the music
To whisper a madrigal
To create a ritual

Tonight I'm serving tea
Made of herbs and jasmine
And aromas that don't exist
I'm going to call the music
Find arising from me
A satin poem

Call the music, the music
Having it so near me
Like the wind in the desert
Woken inside of me

Call the music, the music
The muse of my themes
In this night of strangeness
Just holding you
Is calling the music