Country Belgium Selection date(s) 10 March 2009 Selected song "Copycat" | Selection process Internal Selection Selected entrant Patrick Ouchène | |
Semi-final result Failed to qualify (17th) | ||
Belgium were represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 by the French-language broadcaster Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF), who choose the Belgian entry for the contest through an internal selection. The song did not progress from the first semi-final of the competition, finishing second to last with just one point.
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Background
Belgium debuted at the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and since has participated a total of fifty times. The country was only absent three times in its history: 1994, 1997, and 2001, when its low score the year before prevented reentry. Belgium won the contest once, in 1986 in Bergen, Norway with the song "J'aime la vie" sung by Sandra Kim. It achieved second place in 1978 and 2003 and was last eight times. Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Belgium has failed to appear at the contest final.
Since Belgium is represented by two broadcasters at the contest (Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF) and Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT)), they each take turns sending the entry; RTBF is French-speaking, while VRT is Dutch-speaking. All entries prior to 1999 except for 1977, where sung in either French or Dutch, but Belgium has never sent a representative singing in German, its third official language. While VRT usually organizes a long-lasting national final, RTBF has a history of internal selections with varying levels of success, from a second place for Urban Trad in 2003 to a bottom 5 place in the semi final for The KMG's in 2007.
The 2009 contest marked the turn for RTBF to once again send an entrant and it decided to hold an internal selection as it had in 2007. Patrick Ouchène was selected to represent the country with the song Copycat, but it finished second last in the first semi-final, scoring just one point.
Selection
RTBF launched an appeal to recording companies for artists to be offered for Eurovision. Its director of Entertainment revealed on January 29, 2009 that the network had selected the song for the contest in Autumn 2008 and that the artist and song will be revealed in early March.