Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Country	Belgium
National selection
Selection process	De T.V. Maakt Muziek
Selection date(s)	16 February 1957
Selected entrant	Bobbejaan Schoepen
Selected song	"Straatdeuntje"
Selected songwriter(s)	Harry Frekin; Eric Franssen;
Finals performance
Final result	8th, 5 points
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest

Belgium was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, on 3 March 1957, by Bobbejaan Schoepen with the song "Straatdeuntje", written by Harry Frekin and Eric Franssen and performed in Dutch. The song was chosen during a national final with Schoepen performing all entries.

Before Eurovision[]

National final[]

De T.V. Maakt Muziek

Bobbejaan Schoepen in the national final.

In the national final, all three songs were sung by Bobbejaan Schoepen. The three songs were presented during a music show called De T.V. Maakt Muziek. Schoepen did not sing the three entries live but they were rather presented like in video clips. National final was held on 16th February 1957 and at the beginning, it was announced that a jury would choose the winner. "Straatdeuntje" was the winning song and would become Belgium's third entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (as every country had two songs in the 1956 competition) and the first song submitted by the Flemish broadcaster as well as the first Belgian entry performed in Dutch.^[1]

Draw	Song	Place
1	"Straatdeuntje"	1st
2	"Zomernacht in Gay Paree"	Unknown
3	"Het beeld van mijn moeder"	Unknown

At Eurovision[]

At the Eurovision Song Contest in Frankfurt, the Belgian entry was the first of the night preceding Luxembourg. Reflecting the song title, the stage was showing the picture of a street in the background. Schoepen delivered, as usual in these days, a simple performance which was remarkable because of the large whistling part in his song. At the close of voting, Belgium had received five points in total; the country finished shared eight among the ten participants. The Belgian jury gave half of its points, five, to the winning country, the Netherlands.

Voting[]

Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song. Among the jury members was Francis Bay, who would go on to conduct the Belgian entry at Eurovision in nine future edition of the contest.^[2]