Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Country	Belgium
National selection
Selection process	Eurosong 2014
Selection date(s)	Casting: 2 February 2014 9 February 2014 Call Back: 16 February 2014 Semi-finals: 23 February 2014 2 March 2014 9 March 2014 Final: 16 March 2014
Selected entrant	Axel Hirsoux
Selected song	"Mother"
Selected songwriter(s)	Rafael Artesero Ashley Hicklin
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (14th)
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2013 • 2014 • 2015►

Belgium participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their entry was selected through the national final Eurosong 2014, organised by the Belgian broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT). Axel Hirsoux performed the Belgian entry "Mother" written by Rafael Artesero and Ashley Hicklin. The song failed to qualify from the first semi-final, placing 14th and scoring 28 points.

Before Eurovision[]

Eurosong 2014[]

Eurosong 2014 was the national final that selected Belgium's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The competition consisted of two casting shows that took place on 2 and 9 February 2014, a Call Back round on 16 February 2014, three semi-finals on 23 February, 2 March and 9 March 2014 followed by a final on 16 March 2014 where the winning song and artist were selected. All shows were hosted by Eva Daeleman and Peter Van de Veire and broadcast on Eén.^[1] This marked a return to a national final selection procedure by VRT, who last organised a televised multi-artist national final in 2008, opting instead for internal selections in the years between.^[2]

Format[]

Two casting shows were aired on 2 and 9 February 2014. Both shows were filmed on 3 December 2013. Thirty artists were given the opportunity to audition in front of a panel of four experts without an audience by performing a cover version of a past Eurovision Song Contest song. Each show introduced fifteen artists and four directly proceeded to the semi-finals, while an additional four artists proceeded to the Call Back round.^[3] The Call Back round took place on 16 February 2014, eight of the eliminated artists had another opportunity to advance and four proceeded to the semi-finals by the expert panel and public televoting. The semi-finals took place on 23 February, 3 March and 9 March 2014 where each artist presented their candidate Eurovision song. From each semi-final, four artists competed and two proceeded to the final by the expert panel and public televoting. The final took place on 16 March 2014 where the winner was chosen by seven international jury groups and public televoting.

During each of the seven shows, the expert panel provided commentary and feedback to the artists and selected entries to advance in the competition. These experts were:^[4]

• Bart Peeters ��� singer and television presenter
• Piet Goddaer – musician known by his stage name Ozark Henry
• Jef Martens – musician and DJ known by various aliases such as Basto and Lazy Jay
• Ruslana – Ukrainian singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Competing entries[]

VRT opened two separate applications forms: one for artists and another for lyricists and composers to submit their songs. Artists were able to apply to participate individually or in a group of up to six people, and were required to submit a video recording of them performing a cover version of a past Eurovision Song Contest song. The submission deadline for artists and songs concluded on 14 October 2013 and 28 October 2013 respectively.^[5] Thirty artists were selected and sixteen songs were selected and matched with the sixteen artists that proceeded to the semi-finals and Call Back round. The four contestants that failed to proceed from the Call Back round (White Bird, Jessy, Mr. Jones and Joyce) did not perform their candidate songs.^[6]

Casting Shows[]

The casting shows were held at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp and aired on 2 and 9 February 2014.^[7][8] Ruslana was unable to attend due to her involvement in the pro-European Union protests in Ukraine. In each show each artist performed a cover version of a past Eurovision Song Contest song and the expert panel selected four acts to directly proceed to the semi-finals and four to proceed to the Call Back round.^[4]

1.^ Performed as "Sister" by the original artist.

Call Back[]

The Call Back round took place on 9 February 2014 at the Videohouse in Vilvoorde. Each artist performed a cover version of a past Eurovision Song Contest song and the expert panel and a public televote determined the top four to proceed to the semi-finals.^[5][9]

2.^ Medley of "Anne" originally performed by Clouseau (from the 1989 Belgian national final), "Jennifer Jennings" originally performed by Louis Neefs and "Only Teardrops" originally performed by Emmelie de Forest.

Semi-finals[]

Three semi-finals took place on 23 February, 2 March and 9 March 2014 at the Videohouse in Vilvoorde. In each semi-final four of the twelve competing artists performed their candidate song for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest and the expert panel and a public televote determined the top two acts to proceed to the final.

Final[]

The final took place on 16 March 2014 at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.^[4] The expert panel participated in the final solely in an advisory role. Seven international jury groups consisting of five members each and a public televote determined the winner, "Mother" performed by Axel Hirsoux.^[11] The public and the jury each had a total of 280 points to award. Each jury group awarded points as follows: 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The public vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: SMS and online voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the public vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 280 points: 28 points.^[12][13]

Detailed International Jury Votes
Draw	Song								Total
1	"Need You Tonight"	12	12	10	8	8	8		58
2	"What's the Time in Tokyo"	4		4	6	6	6	6	32
3	"Hero (In Flanders Fields)"	6	4				4	8	22
4	"One"		6	8	4	10	10	4	42
5	"Nothing Is Impossible"	10	10	6	12	4		10	52
6	"Mother"	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	74

At Eurovision[]

Axel Hirsoux during the first semi-final dress rehearsal

Axel Hirsoux on stage with dancer Isabelle Beernaert

During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, Belgium was drawn to compete in the second half of the first semi-final on 6 May 2014.^[14] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Belgium would perform 10th, following Ukraine and preceding Moldova.^[15] Belgium failed to qualify from the first semi-final, placing 14th in a field of 16 songs and scoring 28 points.^[16]

On stage, Axel Hirsoux was joined by one female dancer: Isabelle Beernaert. The Belgian performance featured Axel performing the song and the dancer performing gentle choreography.^[17]

In Belgium, both the semi-finals and final were broadcast on één and Radio 2 with commentary in Dutch provided by Peter Van de Veire and Eva Daeleman.^[18] All three shows were also broadcast on La Une with French commentary provided by Jean-Louis Lahaye and Maureen Louys.^[19] The Belgian spokesperson revealing the result of the Belgian vote in the final was Angelique Vlieghe.^[20]

Voting[]

Points awarded to Belgium[]

Points awarded to Belgium (Semi-final 1)[21] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points  Moldova 6 points  Armenia 5 points 4 points  Azerbaijan  Russia 3 points  Netherlands 2 points  Montenegro 1 point  France  San Marino Points awarded by Belgium[] Points awarded by Belgium (Semi-final 1)[21] Score Country 12 points  Hungary 10 points  Netherlands 8 points  Sweden 7 points  Ukraine 6 points  Portugal 5 points  Latvia 4 points  Iceland 3 points  Armenia 2 points  Albania 1 point  Russia Points awarded by Belgium (Final)[22] Score Country 12 points  Austria 10 points  Sweden 8 points  Netherlands 7 points  Hungary 6 points  Denmark 5 points  Romania 4 points  Ukraine 3 points  Finland 2 points  Spain 1 point  United Kingdom Detailed voting results[] The following members comprised the Belgian jury:[23]  [nl] (jury chairperson) – musician, singer, producer, artist, manager, represented Belgium in the 1991 contest as part of Clouseau Laura van den Bruel (Iris) – singer, represented Belgium in the 2012 contest  [nl] – radio DJ, television host, artist Yannic Fonderie – music producer, composer Wouter Vander Veken – music producer, composer, label manager Detailed voting results from Belgium (Semi-final 1)[24] Draw Country B. Savenberg Iris R. Van Acker Y. Fonderie W. Van der Veken Average Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Points 01  Armenia 13 15 14 14 15 15 1 8 3 02  Latvia 5 14 11 9 5 9 6 6 5 03  Estonia 6 8 10 13 6 8 13 11 04  Sweden 1 1 9 2 3 2 5 3 8 05  Iceland 15 12 2 3 1 5 10 7 4 06  Albania 4 9 8 5 14 7 9 9 2 07  Russia 8 5 12 4 9 6 12 10 1 08  Azerbaijan 11 6 13 10 8 11 14 14 09  Ukraine 3 4 4 6 7 3 7 4 7 10  Belgium 11  Moldova 14 11 7 7 12 12 15 15 12  San Marino 10 13 6 15 13 14 8 12 13  Portugal 12 7 5 11 10 10 4 5 6 14  Netherlands 9 2 3 8 2 4 2 2 10 15  Montenegro 7 10 15 12 11 13 11 13 16  Hungary 2 3 1 1 4 1 3 1 12 Detailed voting results from Belgium (Final)[25] Draw Country B. Savenberg Iris R. Van Acker Y. Fonderie W. Van der Veken Average Jury Rank Televote Rank Combined Rank Points 01  Ukraine 1 11 7 5 6 5 13 7 4 02  Belarus 19 17 26 9 17 17 23 22 03  Azerbaijan 18 16 22 11 8 16 26 24 04  Iceland 26 12 6 6 5 11 16 13 05  Norway 16 18 20 17 20 18 10 14 06  Romania 8 7 17 18 16 13 5 6 5 07  Armenia 21 26 25 24 19 25 1 11 08  Montenegro 20 19 18 15 22 19 24 25 09  Poland 25 25 24 25 26 26 4 16 10  Greece 24 20 15 22 25 23 7 17 11  Austria 7 6 1 7 1 3 3 1 12 12  Germany 17 15 13 19 10 15 20 19 13  Sweden 3 2 10 2 2 1 6 2 10 14  France 23 24 23 20 9 21 21 23 15  Russia 9 14 14 12 15 12 15 12 16  Italy 22 21 19 21 21 22 18 21 17  Slovenia 14 13 12 10 18 14 25 20 18  Finland 5 8 8 3 3 4 14 8 3 19  Spain 13 3 9 14 12 10 9 9 2 20   Switzerland 11 23 16 23 23 20 12 18 21  Hungary 2 9 3 1 7 2 8 4 7 22  Malta 12 5 2 16 11 9 19 15 23  Denmark 6 10 4 8 4 6 11 5 6 24  Netherlands 10 4 5 13 13 8 2 3 8 25  San Marino 15 22 21 26 24 24 22 26 26  United Kingdom 4 1 11 4 14 7 17 10 1 References[] ^ "Eva Daeleman en Peter Van de Veire presenteren 'Eurosong'". 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