Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971

Eurovision Song Contest 1971
Country	Belgium
National selection
Selection process	Canzonissima
Selection date(s)	6 February 1971
Selected entrant	Jacques Raymond and Lily Castel
Selected song	"Goeiemorgen, morgen"
Selected songwriter(s)	Paul Quintens Phil van Cauwenbergh
Finals performance
Final result	14th, 68 points
Belgium in the  Eurovision Song Contest
◄1970 • 1971 • 1972►

Belgium was represented by Jacques Raymond and Lily Castel, with the song "Goeiemorgen, morgen", at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 April in Dublin. Raymond and Castel had not taken part in the original Belgian final, which was won with Nicole and Hugo performing the song.

Before Eurovision

Canzonissima

Canzonissima was the national final format developed by BRT which determined the song that would represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 1971. This was the 4th edition of Canzonissima, after previously being used to select BRT's 1963 and 1967 entry, and a 3rd season that ran between 1967 and 1968 but wasn't related to the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of nine semi-finals held between October 1970 and January 1971, and a final on 6 February 1971. All shows were held in the Amerikaans Theater in Brussels, and hosted by Jan Theys.^[1]

Format

Canzonissima 1971 consisted of nine semi-finals and a final. The original format had ten artists compete in each semi-final and the top three songs chosen by a jury, as well as the public's favourite, would appear again in the next semi-final, while the other artists would have to select new songs, but after one of the competing artists died after semi-final 2, the remaining seven semi-finals only had nine artists. For a song to qualify to the final, it would have to place top three with the juries, or win the public vote, three times. A song could qualify with any combination of these, for example, it could get top three with juries twice and win the public vote once and then qualify to the final^[1]

Competing Entries

BRT shortlisted eight singers and two groups for Canzonissima 1971: Ann Christy, Kalinka, Micha Marah, Mary Porcelijn, Ron Davis, Joe Harris, Johan Stollz [nl], Johnny White, Nicole & Hugo, and Kate's Kennel. A total of 58 songs competed in Canzonissima 1971.^[1]

Shows

Semi-Finals

Voting in the semi-finals was done by two separate juries and postcard voting. Jury A was a professional jury made up of five members who each gave between 0 and 10 points to every song, and Jury B was a 5-member jury formed by people from the music industry. Jury B didn't impact the selection for Eurovision and their goal was to choose 'the best Flemish song'. Since songs introduced in semi-final 9 could not get to top three with the juries or win the public vote three times and qualify for the final, the rules to qualify for the final were changed for semi-final 9. Songs had to receive at least the average number of points that every song that qualified to the final got in their last semi-final from the jury. The public vote winner also qualified to the final.^[1]

After Semi-final 2, on 21 October 1970, Ron Davis was involved in a car accident and remained absent from Canzonissima 1971 until his death on January 22, 1971. His death was commemorated at the start of the ninth semi-final.

Final

The final took place on 6 February 1971 at the Amerikaans Theater in Brussels. Voting was by an "expert" jury of 11 members, each nominating their favourite song. This turned out to be something of a non-event, as in the end, only three songs received any votes at all. "Goeiemorgen, morgen" was the choice of eight of the jury members.^[1][2]

At Eurovision

Shortly before the Dublin final, however, Nicole had fallen ill and was unable to travel, so broadcaster BRT drafted in Raymond and Castel as late replacements. Raymond had previously sung for Belgium at Eurovision in 1963. Nicole and Hugo would represent Belgium in 1973.

On the night of the final Raymond and Castel performed 10th in the running order, following the United Kingdom and preceding Italy. At the close of the voting "Goeiemorgen, morgen" had received 68 points, placing Belgium 14th of the 18 participating countries.^[3][4] The original version by Nicole and Hugo does, however, remain one of the better-remembered of Belgian Eurovision entries.

Voting

Points awarded to Belgium[5] Score Country 10 points 9 points 8 points 7 points 6 points  Finland  Netherlands  Portugal  United Kingdom 5 points  France  Monaco  Sweden 4 points  Ireland  Norway   Switzerland 3 points  Austria  Italy  Yugoslavia 2 points  Germany  Luxembourg  Malta  Spain

Points awarded by Belgium[5] Score Country 10 points  Finland  Monaco 9 points 8 points  United Kingdom 7 points  Germany 6 points  Norway  Sweden 5 points 4 points  Malta  Portugal  Spain 3 points  Austria  France  Ireland  Luxembourg   Switzerland 2 points  Italy  Netherlands  Yugoslavia

References

This page was last edited on 14 November 2023, at 06:28