BRUSSELS, 14 November 2024
Belgium’s participating broadcaster VRT has revealed their eight hopefuls for the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest. The next ESC will be held in Basel in about six months.
The Belgian selections contains the following singers:
- RED SEBASTIAN (né Seppe Herremans), a Belgium’s Got Talent Finalist and upcoming vocalist known for his bold, queer fashion style. Studied vocals with Gustaph as his teacher, and has a similar vocal style.
- MENTISSA AZIZA, Winner of The Voice Kids 2014, known internationally for her appearances in The Voice of Holland and The Voice France. Her discography consists of mid-tempo electro pop showcasing her voice, usually in French.
- LE MANOU (née Manou Maerten), a former JESC hopeful and DJ specializing in francophone house/pop inspired by classical music.
- GRACE KHUABI, Winner of The Voice 2021 who has since released the critically acclaimed single “Freedom”. Her style is feel-good hiphop. Currently known for her work in musical theatre.
- LENN (né Len Neefs), grandson of Louis Neefs (BE1967 and BE1969) and former child singer with experience in musical theatre.
- LEEZ (née Lisa van Rossem), former JESC hopeful and sister of the well-known Flemish pop singer Metejoor. Her songs are in the indie pop genre.
- JELLE VAN DAEL, vocalist and composer of the dancepop group Lasgo.
- STEPHANIE CALLEBAUT, vocalist of ethereal pop group SX with one (Flemish language) solo single to her name. She has a low, hoarse voice perfect for low-tempo jazz ballads.
Together, these eight will compete against one another in Eurosong 2025, the Belgian national final for that precious Eurovision ticket.
There’s currently no clear information about the competing songs – the plan is for the songs to be revealed in January during two “introduction shows”, which will be aired on VRT’s main channel VRT 1.
There, the songs will be showcased for the first time without staging and you’ll be able to learn more about the artists, about who they are and what inspires their music. Each show will feature four of the participating artists.
The Eurosong 2025 Final will take place on Saturday 1 February 2025 in Brussels. Currently, we’re lacking the exact details of the upcoming selection procedure, but we’ll get back to you once we do.
Last time Eurosong was held, back in 2023, Belgium chose Gustaph as their representative. He won due to an overall higher combination of jury panel points and the audience vote than his rivals (The Starlings and Gala Dragot). His song “Because of you” shattered expectations thanks to Gustaph’s powerful vocal performance and visually enticing act, grabbing a 7th place in Liverpool.
Belgium have participated in Eurovision since the very beginning as one of the Original Seven (Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Luxembourg), and are the least successful of the seven. They’ve only won the contest once, in 1986 with Sandra Kim’s “J’aime la vie”, and have scored the fewest number of top threes compared to their number of participations.
The Flemish entries have traditionally been less successful than the French-speaking ones (the highest position so far remains Tom Dice’s 6th place in 2010), but in recent years have had better luck at reaching the Grand Final. (VRT reached the final 4 times in their last five appearances, as opposed to RTBF’s 3Q to 2NQ record)
VRT’s ambition to improve their track record at Eurovision has been a public secret for a long time. Whether they can is something we will find out in January 2025.
Are #YOU excited for Belgium’s line-up? Let us know in the comments, on our forum or join the discussion in our Discord!
