Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Belgium
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 14 January 2019; Song: 28 February 2019
Selected entrant	Eliot
Selected song	"Wake Up"
Selected songwriter(s)	Pierre Dumoulin; Eliot Vassamillet;
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (13th)
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest

Belgium participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Eliot was selected internally by the Belgian broadcaster Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF) to represent Belgium in Tel Aviv with the song "Wake Up". The song is written by Pierre Dumoulin and was released on 28 February 2019.^[1]

Background[]

Prior to the 2019 contest, Belgium had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.^[2] Since then, the country has won the contest on one occasion in 1986 with the song "J'aime la vie" performed by Sandra Kim. Following the introduction of semi-finals for 2004, Belgium had been featured in only six finals. In 2018, Sennek represented the country with the song "A Matter of Time", but failed to qualify for the final, finishing in 12th place.

The Belgian broadcaster for the 2019 Contest, who broadcasts the event in Belgium and organises the selection process for its entry, was Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF). The Belgian participation in the contest alternates between two broadcasters: the Walloon RTBF and the Flemish Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT). Both broadcasters have selected the Belgian entry using national finals and internal selections in the past.

Before Eurovision[]

Internal selection[]

On 14 January 2019, RTBF confirmed that Eliot Vassamillet would be representing Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.^[3] His song, "Wake Up", was officially released on 28 February 2019.^[4]

Promotion[]

Eliot made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Wake Up" as the Belgian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, he performed during the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators.^[5] Eliot also performed during the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris venue in London on 14 April, hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.^[6] He also promoted "Wake Up" at the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid on 20 April.

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Belgium was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[7]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Belgium was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Serbia and preceding the entry from Georgia.^[8]

Semi-final[]

Belgium performed tenth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Serbia and preceding the entry from Georgia. At the end of the show, Belgium was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Belgium placed thirteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 70 points: 20 points from the televoting and 50 points from the juries.

Voting[]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.^[9]

Points awarded to Belgium[]

Points awarded to Belgium (Semi-final 1)^[10]
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points
10 points		Cyprus Portugal
8 points
7 points
6 points		Slovenia
5 points	France	Spain
4 points	Estonia Spain	Iceland
3 points	Cyprus	Czech Republic Israel Poland
2 points	Portugal	Finland Georgia San Marino
1 point	Iceland Poland

Points awarded by Belgium[]

Points awarded by Belgium (Semi-final 1)^[10]
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Estonia	Australia
10 points	Australia	Iceland
8 points	Portugal	Czech Republic
7 points	Iceland	Estonia
6 points	Czech Republic	Greece
5 points	Poland	Serbia
4 points	Greece	Belarus
3 points	Slovenia	Cyprus
2 points	San Marino	Hungary
1 point	Cyprus	Portugal

Points awarded by Belgium (Final)^[11]
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Netherlands	Italy
10 points	France	Iceland
8 points	Italy	France
7 points	Norway	Switzerland
6 points	Spain	Netherlands
5 points	Switzerland	Czech Republic
4 points	Australia	Australia
3 points	Iceland	Greece
2 points	Sweden	Cyprus
1 point	Russia	Denmark

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Belgian jury:^[9]

Hakima Darhmouch (jury chairperson) – Head of the Music and Culture department RTBF
Alex Germys – producer and DJ
Joëlle Morane – choreographer
Pierre Bertinchamps – journalist
Olivier Biron – artist manager, festival management

Detailed voting results from Belgium (Semi-final 1)^[10]
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	H. Darhmouch	A. Germys	J. Morane	P. Bertinchamps	O. Biron	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	1	13	5	13	7	8	3	10	1
02	Montenegro	16	16	12	16	16	16		16
03	Finland	14	14	9	8	15	13		14
04	Poland	15	12	14	15	14	15		6	5
05	Slovenia	13	10	7	7	8	11		8	3
06	Czech Republic	2	7	4	12	1	3	8	5	6
07	Hungary	11	6	10	5	5	9	2	11
08	Belarus	9	4	3	6	10	7	4	13
09	Serbia	8	9	2	9	4	6	5	12
10	Belgium
11	Georgia	10	15	15	4	11	12		15
12	Australia	3	8	1	2	3	1	12	2	10
13	Iceland	5	2	16	1	2	2	10	4	7
14	Estonia	4	3	6	3	13	4	7	1	12
15	Portugal	6	5	11	10	9	10	1	3	8
16	Greece	7	1	8	11	6	5	6	7	4
17	San Marino	12	11	13	14	12	14		9	2

Detailed voting results from Belgium (Final)^[11]
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	H. Darhmouch	A. Germys	J. Morane	P. Bertinchamps	O. Biron	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	15	9	17	19	13	17		21
02	Albania	26	26	25	20	26	26		12
03	Czech Republic	5	7	4	9	4	6	5	16
04	Germany	23	24	16	17	22	24		26
05	Russia	18	18	20	12	25	21		10	1
06	Denmark	17	15	3	8	16	10	1	13
07	San Marino	25	17	24	25	24	25		22
08	North Macedonia	20	25	7	23	23	18		18
09	Sweden	19	12	8	11	15	13		9	2
10	Slovenia	4	13	15	13	10	11		15
11	Cyprus	6	6	13	16	8	9	2	20
12	Netherlands	13	3	5	3	6	5	6	1	12
13	Greece	16	2	22	26	7	8	3	19
14	Israel	22	20	12	21	19	22		17
15	Norway	24	23	10	7	20	15		4	7
16	United Kingdom	11	10	19	18	11	16		24
17	Iceland	3	4	26	2	2	2	10	8	3
18	Estonia	12	14	14	10	14	14		11
19	Belarus	14	16	11	22	18	19		25
20	Azerbaijan	8	8	23	15	12	12		14
21	France	2	11	6	5	3	3	8	2	10
22	Italy	1	1	9	1	1	1	12	3	8
23	Serbia	21	21	21	14	17	23		23
24	Switzerland	7	5	1	6	9	4	7	6	5
25	Australia	9	19	2	4	5	7	4	7	4
26	Spain	10	22	18	24	21	20		5	6