Introduction

• Participant(s): Eliot
• Song: "Wake Up"
  
• Writer(s): Pierre Dumoulin, Eliot Vassamillet
• Composer(s): Pierre Dumoulin, Eliot Vassamillet
• Broadcaster: VRT
  
• Social media:     
• Team review: 

This year Belgium will be represented by the Wallonian broadcaster RTBF. There has been an internal selection and the decision felt the participant of the 7th relay of “The Voice Belgium”: Eliot Vassamillet.
This 18-years-old singer, who is born in Mons, Belgium in 2000 has taken his first name as artist name, so it’s just Eliot. He learned to play the guitar in the age of seven and he studied music theory for two years. After his participation in The Voice Belgium, Eliot has been attending several concerts throughout Belgium. Right now Eliot is still attending secondary school at Collège Saint-Stasinas, where is going to finish this year.

The composer of “Wake Up” Pierre Demoulin has also been co-author of the Belgian entry “City Lights” sung by Blanche, who came 4th in Kiev 2017. Pierre Demoulin is also head of the band Roscoe. When he saw Eliot on stage he was convince that he had the perfect song for him and invited him to Liège. Eliot has told him about his background and hopes. Both the composer and the singer share their preference for melancholic music, either pop or rock. Together they want to send a positive message of friendship and open mindedness.

The song “Wake Up” is about young people gather together actively to reach something better in the world. This topic is quite current in the moment, where young people show their strength on the streets – a common thing which unites the youth – the fight against the climate catastrophe. The modern composition has an unusual rhythm which changes the speed. In the video clip there are a lot of people, but Eliot is singing alone. For the live performance it would be great to see a strong choir on stage to push the message. As in the past years, Belgium is sending a very interesting and powerful song to the ESC. With a good stage performance this will do very well in Tel Aviv.

History

• Debut: 1956
• Participations: 62
• Victories: 1
• Finals: 52 (6 since 2004)
• Top 10: 26
• Chances for Top 10: 42%
• Chances for Final: 38% (since 2004)

Belgium is participating for the 62nd time 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 being provided alternately each year. Well, it cannot be said, which part of Belgium is sending more successful songs, both Wallonia and Flanders are eager to deliver the best quality, which is visible in the good results especially in the past years. The Belgians are on a good way.

For the first and so far only time, Belgium could win the ESC back in 1986 with “J’aime La Vie” sung by Sandra Kim. Over all these years there have many good places in the top 10. Last year Sennek could not continue the Belgian stroke of luck, as she did not pass the Semi Finals in Lisbon with “A Matter Of Time”.

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 in the noughties, only six times Belgium could qualify in the last fourteen. 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 and even the non-European country Australia takes part regularly now. 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. But this has paid off lately and Belgium has consequently qualified for the Grand Finals three times in a row, beside of last year.

Biggest successes

1x 1st place

• Sandra Kim - "J'aime La Vie" (1986)

4x 2nd place

• Fud Leclerc - "Messieurs Les Noyés De La Seine" (1956)
• Mony Marc - "Le Plus Beau Jour De Ma Vie" (1956)
• Jean Vallée - "L'amour ça Fait Chanter La Vie" (1978)
• Urban Trad - "Sanomi" (2003)
• Blanche - "City Lights" (2017)

Video Nostalgia

• “Geef Het Op” – Clouseau , Rank 16, 1991, Rome
  
• “Je T'adore” - Kate Ryan , Rank 12 (Semi Final), 2006, Athens
  
• “Love Kills” – Roberto Bellarosa , Rank 12, 2013, Malmö