Antes do adeus

"Antes do adeus"
Eurovision Song Contest 1997 entry
Country	Portugal
Artist(s)	Célia Lawson
Language	Portuguese
Composer(s)	Thilo Krassman, Rosa Lobato de Faria
Lyricist(s)	Rosa Maria de Bettencourt Rodrigues Lobato de Faria
Conductor	Thilo Krassman
Finals performance
Final result	24th
Final points	0
Appearance chronology
◄ O meu coração não tem cor (1996)
Se eu te pudesse abraçar (1998) ►

"Antes do adeus" ("Before goodbye") was the Portuguese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, performed in Portuguese by Célia Lawson.

The song is a ballad, with Lawson recounting the events leading to the end of a relationship. She sings that her lover gradually moved away from her and returned things which they had held dear. From her perspective, the world changed markedly, with "the blue of the sky" ceasing to be as blue as it was. The song ends with the line "After the goodbye, deep sadness", by which point the lyrics have caught up with the end of the relationship itself.

The song was performed fifteenth on the night, following Bosnia and Herzegovina's Alma Čardžić with "Goodbye" and preceding Sweden's Blond with "Bara hon älskar mig". At the close of voting, it had received the dreaded nul points, placing 24th (equal last) in a field of 25. This was Portugal's worst result since the Carnation Revolution. The song is widely acknowledged to have been one of the least deserving "nil point" songs in E.S.C. history- it was recently voted second in a poll of the least deserving "nil point" entries.^{[citation needed]}

It was succeeded as Portuguese representative at the 1998 Contest by Alma Lusa with "Se eu te pudesse abraçar".