Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Prior to the 2018 contest, Belgium had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.[1] Since then, the country has won the contest on one occasion in 1986 with the song "J'aime la vie" performed by Sandra Kim. Following the introduction of semi-finals for 2004, Belgium had been featured in only six finals. However, in the last three previous contests (2015-2017) Belgium had achieved three consecutive top ten results in the final. In 2017, Blanche represented the country with the song "City Lights", qualifying to the final and placing fourth.

The Belgian broadcaster for the 2018 Contest, who broadcasts the event in Belgium and organises the selection process for its entry, was Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT). The Belgian participation in the contest alternates between two broadcasters: the Flemish VRT and the Walloon Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF). Both broadcasters have selected the Belgian entry using national finals and internal selections in the past. In 2016, VRT organised the national final Eurosong in order to select the Belgian entry, while in 2017 RTBF internally selected a contestant from the reality singing competition The Voice Belgique to represent the nation. On 9 May 2017, commentator for VRT Peter Van de Veire confirmed that Belgium would participate in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest and that the Belgian entry would be internally selected.[2]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Belgium was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[6]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Albania was set to perform in position 4, following the entry from Albania and preceding the entry from Czech Republic.[7]

Points awarded by Belgium

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Ireland  Austria 10 points  Austria  Czech Republic 8 points  Czech Republic   Switzerland 7 points  Cyprus  Israel 6 points  Armenia  Armenia 5 points  Estonia  Ireland 4 points  Lithuania  Albania 3 points  Israel  Cyprus 2 points  Finland  Bulgaria 1 point  Greece  Iceland

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Netherlands  Austria 10 points  Israel  Netherlands 8 points  France  Sweden 7 points  Cyprus  Czech Republic 6 points  Italy  Israel 5 points  Denmark  Germany 4 points  Ireland  Cyprus 3 points  Austria  France 2 points  Germany  Albania 1 point  Czech Republic  Spain

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Belgian jury: [9]

• Bob Savenberg – Chairperson – singer, songwriter, musician, manager
• Wouter Vander Veken – music producer
• Lien De Greef – singer
• Laura Tesoro – singer, represented Belgium in the 2016 contest
• Tom Dice – singer, songwriter, represented Belgium in the 2010 contest

Split voting results from Belgium (Semi-final 1) [8][10]
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		W. V. Veken	L. Tesoro	T. Dice	B. Savenberg	N. Delporte	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	8	14	15	15	16	15		14
02	Iceland	10	5	12	10	14	10	1	15
03	Albania	12	2	4	9	10	7	4	11
04	Belgium
05	Czech Republic	4	3	3	2	4	2	10	3	8
06	Lithuania	14	13	10	11	11	13		7	4
07	Israel	5	9	6	3	3	4	7	8	3
08	Belarus	18	17	18	17	17	17		16
09	Estonia	11	15	9	13	5	11		6	5
10	Bulgaria	9	6	11	8	13	9	2	12
11	Macedonia	17	18	17	18	18	18		18
12	Croatia	15	12	16	16	8	14		17
13	Austria	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	2	10
14	Greece	16	16	14	14	15	16		10	1
15	Finland	13	11	13	7	9	12		9	2
16	Armenia	3	4	5	6	7	5	6	5	6
17	Switzerland	2	8	7	5	2	3	8	13
18	Ireland	6	10	2	4	6	6	5	1	12
19	Cyprus	7	7	8	12	12	8	3	4	7

Split voting results from Belgium (final) [11][12]
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		W. V. Veken	L. Tesoro	T. Dice	B. Savenberg	N. Delporte	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	20	23	18	19	22	24		24
02	Spain	9	10	4	8	10	10	1	19
03	Slovenia	25	21	19	18	21	25		25
04	Lithuania	10	14	9	23	17	14		11
05	Austria	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	8	3
06	Estonia	13	18	6	12	7	12		12
07	Norway	14	13	14	13	8	13		14
08	Portugal	18	15	26	20	11	17		17
09	United Kingdom	19	19	20	14	12	16		18
10	Serbia	22	22	25	25	23	26		26
11	Germany	6	4	3	15	13	6	5	9	2
12	Albania	11	3	13	10	6	9	2	13
13	France	23	16	5	7	3	8	3	3	8
14	Czech Republic	4	5	7	6	4	4	7	10	1
15	Denmark	12	9	21	22	26	15		6	5
16	Australia	16	20	15	26	25	21		21
17	Finland	15	24	17	16	19	20		23
18	Bulgaria	17	12	22	21	18	18		16
19	Moldova	26	25	24	17	14	22		15
20	Sweden	7	7	8	2	2	3	8	22
21	Hungary	21	26	16	11	24	19		20
22	Israel	5	8	11	5	5	5	6	2	10
23	Netherlands	3	2	2	3	15	2	10	1	12
24	Ireland	8	11	12	4	9	11		7	4
25	Cyprus	2	6	10	9	20	7	4	4	7
26	Italy	24	17	23	24	16	23		5	6