Introduction

This year the Belgian broadcaster RTBF from Wallonia has the right to choose an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The singer Roberto Bellarosa has been determined internally and there has been a radio show with three songs for the public to choose from. “Love Kills” has been chosen to represent Belgium in Malmö. Maybe it’s due to the lack of interest in Belgium that there is not a bigger show with a competition in it. And another important point, airing the show on a Sunday morning might not have reached the majority of the Belgian population.

The singer Roberto is just 18 years old and has Italian roots. He has won the first edition of “The Voice Belgique” last year. He has also received a record contract with Sony due to his success. 

The song “Love Kills” is a pop song without a big climax. Judged by the video clip Roberto has some troubles with the very high notes in this song. Due to the high competition in the first semi final this song will have trouble to qualify, unless the whole arrangement will be improved. Compared to last year’s winning entry “Euphoria” this song is far away from winning the ESC.

History

Participations: 56

Debut: 1956

Biggest success: 1st place 1986 “J’aime La Vie” by Sandra Kim, 4x 2nd place “Messieurs Les Noyés De La Seine” by Fud Leclerc 1956, “Le Plus Beau Jour De Ma Vie” by Mony Marc also 1956, “L'amour ça Fait Chanter La Vie” by Jean Vallée 1978, “Sanomi” by Urban Trad 2003, 2x 4th place, 2x 5th place, 4x 6th place, 4x 7th place, 3x 8th place, 1x 9th place, 2x 10th place

Belgium is celebrating its 56th song in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Due to the fact the Belgium has two languages and regions Flanders and Wallonia the Belgian representative is coming alternately each year. In former years the French songs from Wallonia have been more successful but in the last decades the Flemish entries made the best results. The only Belgian winner was Sandra Kim in 1986 with “J’aime la vie”. Over all these years there have many good places in the top 10, the closest to win again was “Sanomi” by Urban Trad in 2003 (2nd), furthermore “L'amour ça Fait Chanter La Vie” by Jean Vallée in 1978 (2nd) and recently “Me and my guitar” by Tom Dice in 2010 (6th).

Due to the introduction of the semi finals in 2004 some countries are struggling to qualify for the grand final. Belgium is one of the countries which had some difficulties lately, only two times Belgium could qualify in the last nine years. It has also to be taken into consideration that the competition has grown over the years. The Eastern European countries are making the half of the participating countries nowadays, so therefore some well established countries have to make the way for the new countries. The positive thing about it is that it forces the composers to bring higher quality songs into the competition; there is less place for weak songs.