Harman Patil (Editor)

Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

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Country
  
Belgium

Selected entrant
  
Kate Ryan

Selection process
  
Eurosong '06

Selected song
  
"Je t'adore"

Selection date(s)
  
Heats 8 January 2006 15 February 2006 22 January 2006 29 January 2006 Semifinals 5 February 2006 12 February 2006 Final 19 February 2006

Semi-final result
  
Failed to qualify (12th, 69 points)

Belgium participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece. The Belgian entry was selected through a national selection, Eurosong '06, organised by the Belgian broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT). Kate Ryan represented Belgium with the song "Je t'adore", which failed to qualify from the competition's semi-final, placing 12th and scoring 69 points.

Contents

Eurosong '06

Eurosong '06 was the Belgian national final for choosing the Belgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.

The selection process involved the staging of seven shows; the final on 19 February, plus four quarter finals and two semi finals held during January and early February 2006. All shows were hosted by Bart Peeters at VRT TV Studios in Schelle. Each qualifying heat contained seven songs and the top three from each heat proceeded to one of the two semi finals. After the quarter finals, the jury chose two wildcards - one for each of the semi finals - bringing the total amount of songs in each semi final to seven. The top three of each semi final proceeded to the final and the jury selected one wildcard to bring the total in the final to seven. In the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, the juries accounted for 66% of the votes while the televote accounted for 33%. In the final, the juries accounted for 40% of the vote, the international juries accounted for 30% of the vote and the televote accounted for the remaining 40%. The songs were judged by a professional jury (consisting of Yasmine, Marcel Vanthilt, André Vermeulen and twice Eurovision winner Johnny Logan), Radio 2, Radio Donna, Press Jury and televoters. Three European juries were implemented in the final.

Two former Eurovision Song Contest participants competed in the selection: Vanessa Chinitor (1999) and Barbara Dex (1993).

Kate Ryan won the national final after being a top three favourite with all eight juries, and being the top favourite amongst the televoters and two of the international juries. The winning composition, "Je t'adore" - with a French title but English lyrics - was written by Kate herself and three Swedish composers; Niklas Bergwall, Niclas Kings and Lisa Greene.

Quarter-final 1

  • Sonny O'Brien was later chosen as one of the two wild cards for the semi finals by the professional jury.

    • Quarter-final 2

  • Els de Schepper was later chosen as one of the two wild cards for the semi finals by the professional jury.

    • Semi-final 2

  • The day after the last semi final, Brahim was chosen to be the professional jury wild card in the Belgian final.

    • Final

  • In the final, there were implemented three international juries - one German, one Israeli and one Polish - in addition to the already existing juries and the televoters.
  • Each international jury consisted of eight - 8 - members, four random viewers and four music experts. They will watch the show from their native countries where it will be streamed live for them.
  • The division of powers between the different juries were like this; 40% for national juries, 30% for international juries and 30% for televoters.
  • The decision for broadcaster VRT to choose these three countries to represent the European audience was based on a study they asked two independent professors in statistics to do, on which countries gave the points most close to the actual results in the last few Eurovision Song Contests.

    • Promotion

    Flemish Minister of Culture Bert Anciaux gave a subsidy of 60000 euros in order to promote Kate Ryan and her song in the other participating countries of the year's contest. The money was used to pay for a promotional tour throughout these countries. The subsidy itself has been harshly criticized in the Flemish press.

    At Eurovision

    Belgium competed in the semi-final of the 2006 Contest on 18 May 2006 performing 7th, following Albania and preceding Ireland. Belgium failed to qualify to the final, placing 12th in the semi-final and scoring 69 points.

    The Belgian voting spokesperson, Yasmine, held up a placard with the words "We Love Kate Ryan" during the final.

    References

    Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA