Peter van de Veire, VRT’s commentator to the Eurovision Song Contest confirmed to the Belgian fan media website Songfestival.be that Belgium plans to attend the 2025 contest and select their participant via a national selection.
The country, which is part of the low countries region, alternates between Flemish and French-speaking entrants. This year is the turn of VRT, the Flemish state broadcaster to select their Belgian representative. The broadcaster will use their national final Eurosong (not to be confused with the Irish national final of the same name) as the medium for selection, following the previous successes of Gustaph (2023, 7th place) and Laura Tesoro (2016, 10th place) at the previous two editions.. Both Gustaph and Laura did much better than expected at the contest in their respective years, finishing in the top ten, markedly better results than VRT’s most recent internally selected acts: Sennek (2018, DNQ) and Hooverphonic (2021, DNQ in televote, 19th place in the Grand Final).
Details about the national final aren’t out yet. The previous edition featured seven artists with two songs each. Each artist then internally selected one of their songs for the live show. At the live show the winner was determined by a 50/50 blend of a public vote and a jury panel ranking.
The previous Belgian participant, Thomas Mustin (known as Mustii) failed to reach the Grand Final of the 2024 contest after being eliminated in the semifinal. He was revealed to have finished in 13th place, with only 18 points despite being considered a favourite.
Belgium is one of the seven founding members of the Eurovision Song Contest (alongside France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy), and is the least successful out of the crop. Their only victory was achieved in 1986, when Sandra Kim won with the song “J’aime la vie”. Of the two broadcasters, VRT has the patchier record, held down by the language rule that forced them to select acts in Flemish Dutch over the better received French language songs of their Walloon counterpart.
As the 2024 contest was won by Switzerland, it will likely be held there. Bids have already been made by Geneva, Basel and Sankt Gallen, with presumably more to follow.
So far the following broadcasters have confirmed participation for the 2025 contest:
- VRT (Belgium / Flanders) => National Final (Eurosong)
- DR (Denmark) => National Final (DMGP)
- RTL (Luxembourg) => Selection process will begin soon
- PBS (Malta) => method currently unknown (Songwriting camps confirmed to have taken place)
- RTVE (Spain) => National Final (Benidorm Fest)
- SRG/SSR (Switzerland, host) => method currently unknown (has been Internal Selection since 2019)
Broadcasters that have confirmed plans for a national final but haven’t confirmed participation yet:
- RTSH (Albania) => Festival i Këngës
- NRK (Norway) => Melodi Grand Prix
- SVT (Sweden) => Melodifestivalen
- RTVSlo (Slovenia) => EMA
- RTP (Portugal) => Festival da canção
- RTÉ (Ireland) => Eurosong (separate from the Late Late Show)
Are #YOU excited for the return of the Belgian national final? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited or on our forum page!
