Fernando Daniel

Fernando Daniel
Daniel in 2019
Background information
Born	(1996-05-11) 11 May 1996 (age 28) Estarreja, Portugal
Genres	Soul Pop Ballad
Occupation	Singer
Instruments	Voice Guitar Piano
Years active	2014–present
Labels	Universal Music Portugal

Fernando Daniel Rodrigues Almeida (born 11 May 1996), known professionally as Fernando Daniel is a Portuguese singer-songwriter.^[1] He won the fourth season of The Voice Portugal in 2016.

Daniel's first experiences with singing were singing at school parties for his friends.^[2] He first appeared in the musical industry in 2014, on the Portuguese TV show Factor X, which is the Portuguese version of the worldwide known music show The X Factor. He auditioned on the second edition, alone, and was finally eliminated in the piano phase. However, the judges liked his voice and decided to join him together with Luana Ribeiro, another contestant who was eliminated in the piano phase. Together, they formed the group BABEL,^[3] which finally ended 4th place overall at the show.^[4]

Later, in 2016, he appeared on the 4th season of The Voice Portugal to try his luck again. In the blind auditions, Daniel sang Adele's "When We Were Young" and all four coaches, Marisa Liz, Mickael Carreira, Aurea, and Anselmo Ralph, turned their chairs for him. Daniel chose to be a part of Team Mickael Carreira. His audition was a huge success worldwide and in the country, beating the record of the most watched audition of The Voice. On YouTube alone, the performance has over 120 million views.^[5] He went on to win the show in December, receiving the majority of the public votes.^[6]

In 2017, he was invited by the Portuguese composer Henrique Feist to sing his song "Poema a Dois" in Festival da Canção and try to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017.^[7] He finished in 5th place on the Final. The Grand Finale was eventually won by Salvador Sobral, who sang "Amar Pelos Dois", that ended up winning the contest.^[8][9]

In July 2017, Fernando Daniel released his first original single, "Espera", which was included in the soundtrack for the Portuguese telenovela "A Herdeira".^[10] "Espera" was included in his first studio album, Salto, which was released in March 2018.^[11]

In 2019, Fernando won the Best Portuguese Act award at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards receiving the prize at the live event in Seville.^[12]

From 2021 to 2023, he was featured as a coach on the children's version of The Voice Portugal. His first season was the second season in this format, becoming the first The Voice Portugal winner to become a coach. His contestant, Simão Oliveira, won the contest and represented Portugal in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Paris. Fernando was later on selected by RTP1 as the composer of the song. Later that year, it was announced that Fernando would return in 2022 as a coach. In his second season, his contestant, Maria Gil, won the finale, making him the winning coach for two consecutive seasons.^[13] In 2023, Fernando returned for season 4, his third season as a coach on The Voice Kids. In the fourth season of the show altogether, Daniel's contestant, Júlia Machado, won the season, making him the winning coach for the third consecutive season. He became the first coach in any variation of the Portuguese version of the show to win more than two consecutive seasons. In 2024, it was revealed that Daniel would not return as a coach for season 5, being replaced by Nininho Vaz Maia.

In 2023, he became a coach on season 11 of the main version of The Voice Portugal, seven years after he won the show.^[14] His final contestant, Guilherme Baptista, finished in third place in the season finale. He is set to return as a coach for season 12 in the fall of 2024.^[15]