The final night for the Belgian national selection process, Eurosong 2016 has arrived. VRT, the Flemish broadcaster in Belgium, after held two introduction shows where all 5 acts presented their voice skills and songs now it’s the turn for the Belgian public and the ten international juries to choose the song that will wave the Belgian flag to Stockholm.
From AED studios near Antwerp tonight at 20.25 CET the Flemish broadcaster will hold the final of their national selection for Eurovision 2016. The 5 songs competing tonight, where one will be selected to compete for the country in Stockholm, were just presented a week ago. Today we will see all five participants perform the song they intend to bring to Stockholm.
The 5 candidate songs are the following:
- Amarrylis with Kick the Habbit
- Tom with I’m not Lost
- Astrid with Everybody Aches
- Laura with What’s the Pressure
- Adil with In our Nature
The final as the 2 previous shows will be hosted by Belgian TV presenter Peter Van de Veire. The winner will be decided by a combination of the votes from 10 international juries (Azerbaijan, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Montenegro, The Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and televoting. Two Eurovision personalities Christer Björkman (Swedish Head of Delegation) and Hadise (former Turkish participant at 2009 Eurovision Song Contest) will give feedback after each performance, such as Alexander Rybak or Rhythm Inside’s author Beverly Jo Scott did in previous shows.
VRT explained why they chose these 10 countries as members of the international jury panel:
- Sweden – Most recent winner and host of the 2016 contest
- Hungary – Best forecaster of the winner, averaging the most points to the eventual winner since 2000
- Ireland – Has the most victories at the Eurovision Song Contest
- Netherlands – Has provided the highest amount of points to Belgium in the history of the contest
- Azerbaijan – Has achieved great success in recent years at the contest with five top 5 placings in the last eight years; has never voted for Belgium
- United Kingdom – Has awarded their top score (12 points) to the winner of the contest eight times since 2000
- Latvia – Has awarded their top score (12 points) to the winner of the contest eight times since 2000
- Montenegro – Has never voted for Belgium
- France – Has provided the highest number of top scores (12 points) to Belgium in the history of the contest
- Greece – Has always qualified to the final since the introduction of semi-finals to the contest in 2004
Laura Tesoro and her song was the favourite of the public’s televoting last week. Can she win and tonight where the 10 international juries will vote for their favourites? You can watch Eurosong 2016 and find out which will be the 3rd song of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (after Albania and Ireland) through the official site of eurovision.tv at 20.25 CET.
Below you can watch the five contestants at Eurosong 2016 performing Heroes, in the first show:
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
Belgium has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 57 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The only countries with more appearances are Germany (59), France (58) and the United Kingdom (58). Belgium has been absent only three times in total, due to low scores in the previous years that relegated them from the contest. The country has won the contest once, in 1986, when Sandra Kim won with her song J’aime La Vie in Bergen, Norway. Sandra is the youngest winner in the contest’s history as, despite the fact she claimed she was 15 years old when she won, she was actually only 13, something that was against the rules; EBU nevertheless allowed Kim to keep the victory when her secret was revealed. Currently, the minimum age for participation is 16 years of age on the day of the final and thus Sandra Kim will remain the youngest winner unless the age limit is lowered. By winning in 1986, Belgium became the last of the French-speaking countries to win the contest.
Belgium has two national broadcasters of the contest, Flemish broadcaster (VRT) and Wallonian broadcaster (RTBF). The two broadcasters alternate organizing the entry selection for the Eurovision Song Contest each year. VRT normally hosts a national final, Eurosong, when selecting their entries for Eurovision, while RTBF holds an internal selection process for its entries.
Last year, RTBF chose a The Voice Belgique participant, Loïc Nottet, who came second in the 2014 edition of the talent show. He represented Belgium with his song Rhythm Inside in the first semi-final of the competition. He managed to qualify for the final and came second with 149 points. In the final, Loïc finished fourth with 217 points. It was the best result for Belgium since 2003 and it was the highest amount of points ever awarded to Belgium. It was also the first time ever that an entry that finished fourth scored over 200 points.
