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, 28 points)
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.

Eurosong 2014

Eurosong 2014 was the national final that selected Belgium's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. This marked a return to a national final selection procedure by the Flemish broadcaster VRT, who last organised a televised multi-artist national final in 2008, opting instead for internal selections in the years between.^[1]

Format

The format of the competition involved a series of seven televised shows that included a casting process to select performers, a call back round that gives previously eliminated performers a second chance to advance, semi-finals where the selected performers presented their potential contest entries, ultimately concluding with a final where the Belgian entry for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest was selected. The competition series was hosted by Eva Daeleman and Peter Van de Veire.^[2]

The application process for artists and songs was conducted separately. Artists were required to submit an audition film where they performed a cover of a past Eurovision Song Contest song. Candidates were able to apply to participate individually or in a group of up to six people. The submission deadline for performers was on 14 October 2013. Interested lyricists and composers were able to submit their song proposals by 28 October 2013.^[3]

A panel of four experts guided viewers through the process of selecting the best artist and song to represent Belgium in Copenhagen. The panel consisted of:^[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 and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Competing entries

The eight contestants that were selected to advance directly to the semi-finals and the eight contestants that were selected for the call back round were all provided with entries by the jury panel from the received submissions. The four contestants that did not advance from the call back round (White Bird, Jessy, Mr. Jones and Joyce) did not perform their song during the competition.^[5]

Shows

Casting

The casting shows aired on 2 and 9 February 2014. The casting process was filmed on 3 December 2013 at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp where thirty artists were given the opportunity to audition in front of the expert panel without an audience in the venue. Ruslana was unable to attend the casting due to her involvement in the pro-European Union protests in Ukraine. Fifteen auditions were broadcast during each show.^[6] The auditioning artists performed cover versions of past Eurovision Song Contest songs. Eight artists were selected to directly proceed to the semi-finals, while an additional eight were selected for the call back round.^[4]

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

Call Back

The call back show took place on 16 February 2014 at the Videohouse in Vilvoorde where eight artists that were selected during the casting had another opportunity to perform. An additional four artists were selected to proceed to the semi-finals after the combination of votes from the expert panel and public televotes.^[3]

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 2014, 2 March 2014 and 9 March 2014 at the Videohouse in Vilvoorde where the twelve artists presented their potential Eurovision songs. Four artists and songs competed in each semi-final where the combination of votes from the expert panel and public televoting selected the top two from each semi-final to qualify to the final.^[3][10]

Final

The final of the competition took place on 16 March 2014 at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp.^[4] Two songs that qualified from each of the previous three semi-finals, all together six songs, competed. The four member expert panel participated in the final solely in an advisory role.^[3] The winner was selected by a combination of the votes from public televoting and the votes from seven international jury groups. 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 has accumulated. For example, if a song gained 10% of the public vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 280 points: 28 points.^[11]

Axel Hirsoux was the winner of Eurosong 2014 with the song "Mother".^[12]

Final – 16 March 2014
Draw	Artist	Song	DK	BY	ES	MK	NL	AZ	IE	Jury total	Televote		Total	Place
											%	Points
1	Yass	"Need You Tonight"	12	12	10	8	8	8	0	58	6.75%	19	77	4
2	SIL	"What's The Time In Tokyo"	4	0	4	6	6	6	6	32	1.99%	6	38	5
3	Udo	"Hero (In Flanders Fields)"	6	4	0	0	0	4	8	22	3.54%	10	32	6
4	Bandits	"One"	0	6	8	4	10	10	4	42	17.29%	48	90	2
5	Eva Jacobs	"Nothing Is Impossible"	10	10	6	12	4	0	10	52	13.12%	37	89	3
6	Axel Hirsoux	"Mother"	8	8	12	10	12	12	12	74	57.31%	160	234	1

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.^[13] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Belgium would perform 10th, following Ukraine and preceding Moldova.^[14] Belgium failed to qualify from the first semi-final, placing 14th in a field of 16 songs and scoring 28 points.

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.^[15]

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.^[16] All three shows were also broadcast on La Une with French commentary provided by Jean-Louis Lahaye and Maureen Louys.^[17] The Belgian spokesperson revealing the result of the Belgian vote in the final was Angelique Vlieghe.^[18]

Points awarded to Belgium

Points awarded by Belgium

Semi-final 1 Points awarded in first semi-final: 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

Final Points awarded in the final: 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

Split voting results

The following five members comprise the Belgian jury:^[19]

• Bob Savenberg – 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
• Roos van Acker – radio DJ, television host, artist
• Yannic Fonderie – music producer, composer
• Wouter Van der Veken – music producer, composer, label manager

Semi-final 1

The Belgian votes in the first semi-final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[20]

Semi-final 1 – Belgian Results
Draw	Country	B. Savenberg	L. Van den Bruel	R. van Acker	Y. Fonderie	W. Van der Veken	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (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

Final

The Belgian votes in the grand final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[21]

Final – Belgian Results
Draw	Country	B. Savenberg	L. Van den Bruel	R. van Acker	Y. Fonderie	W. Van der Veken	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (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

See also

• Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2014

References

Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participation 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Artists 1950s Fud Leclerc Mony Marc Bobbejaan Schoepen Fud Leclerc Bob Benny 1960s Fud Leclerc Bob Benny Fud Leclerc Jacques Raymond Robert Cogoi Lize Marke Tonia Louis Neefs Claude Lombard Louis Neefs 1970s Jean Vallée Lily Castel & Jacques Raymond Serge & Christine Ghisoland Nicole & Hugo Jacques Hustin Ann Christy Pierre Rapsat Dream Express Jean Vallée Micha Marah 1980s Telex Emly Starr Stella Pas de Deux Jacques Zegers Linda Lepomme Sandra Kim Liliane Saint-Pierre Reynaert Ingeborg 1990s Philippe Lafontaine Clouseau Morgane Barbara Dex 1994 Frédéric Etherlinck Lisa del Bo 1997 Mélanie Cohl Vanessa Chinitor 2000s Nathalie Sorce 2001 Sergio & The Ladies Urban Trad Xandee Nuno Resende Kate Ryan The KMG's Ishtar Patrick Ouchène 2010s Tom Dice Witloof Bay Iris Roberto Bellarosa Axel Hirsoux Loïc Nottet Laura Tesoro Blanche
Songs 1950s "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" "Le plus beau jour de ma vie" "Straatdeuntje" "Ma petite chatte" "Hou toch van mij" 1960s "Mon amour pour toi" "September, gouden roos" "Ton nom" "Waarom?" "Près de ma rivière" "Als het weer lente is" "Un peu de poivre, un peu de sel" "Ik heb zorgen" "Quand tu reviendras" "Jennifer Jennings" 1970s "Viens l'oublier" "Goeiemorgen, morgen" "À la folie ou pas du tout" "Baby, Baby" "Fleur de liberté" "Gelukkig zijn" "Judy et Cie" "A Million in One, Two, Three" "L'amour ça fait chanter la vie" "Hey Nana" 1980s "Euro-Vision" "Samson" "Si tu aimes ma musique" "Rendez-vous" "Avanti la vie" "Laat me nu gaan" "J'aime la vie" "Soldiers of Love" "Laissez briller le soleil" "Door de wind" 1990s "Macédomienne" "Geef het op" "Nous, on veut des violons" "Iemand als jij" 1994 "La voix est libre" "Liefde is een kaartspel" 1997 "Dis oui" "Like The Wind" 2000s "Envie de vivre" 2001 "Sister" "Sanomi" "1 Life" "Le grand soir" "Je t'adore" "Love Power" "O Julissi" "Copycat" 2010s "Me and My Guitar" "With Love Baby" "Would You?" "Love Kills" "Mother" "Rhythm Inside" "What's the Pressure"
(Note: Entries scored out are when Belgium did not compete)