Belgium BELGIUM 2025 - Red Sebastian - Strobe Lights

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[mauve]

Leez 5/10
Still my favourite in the Belgian NF so far but Leez sounds very flat in the verses and the "you-ou-ou" parts reminds me a bit of Moldova 2024 (the strings/synths in the chorus do their part as well). Anyway, it's decent but nothing to write home about.

Grace 5/10
I like the flute sound and her smile on stage but apart from that? The song screams NQ in 2007.

Le Manou 3/10
The 90's beat in the verses are hitting hard but the chorus is getting on my nerves.

Lenn 1/10
This is really, really bad - especially the vocal acrobatics (and he seems to always fails to deliver them). I like the strings, though.

Sorry but these performances were almost as bad as NF 2022.

Belgium wouldn't be qualifying with any of these songs in May.

Leez is also my favorite here, but a low favorite. I hope the other four songs will be better!

 

[RainyWoods]

Pull Up - Grace = 8/10 (extra 1 point awarded for being so bless)
Le Manou - Fille à papa = 5.5/10
Perfectly imperfect - LEEZ = 5/10
Air balloon - Lenn = 1/10 (my first official 1 of the season)

Grace gives me major my number 1 favourite from an abysmal You Decide NF that I'm going to hype up more than I should because there's nothing else here vibes. I'm lowkey here for Grace's LIKE IT/SloMo (Boris was spot on with this comparison) mashup and all that cane action.

 

[aef]

So far this is the year of weak, disappointing NFs! So far only Supernova has got a decent overall song quality! Crazy….

 

[rasmuslights]

So far this is the year of weak, disappointing NFs! So far only Supernova has got a decent overall song quality! Crazy….

Agree!!

I do have a couple of songs from other nfs that I love (La Casa from Benidorm, a couple from Eesti Laul and UMK, thank god Zjerm won, Norway and Iceland are awful).

We need more internal selections tbh.

I love 5 songs from the Latvian selection (Legzdina x Bel Tempo, Tautumeitas, Kobra, Chris Noah and Greta - love all).

 

[Deluxenite]

Tomorrow we will have snippets from the four remaining songs of Mentissa, Jelle, Stefanie & Red Sebastian.

 

[BorisBubbles]

Agree!!

I do have a couple of songs from other nfs that I love (La Casa from Benidorm, a couple from Eesti Laul and UMK, thank god Zjerm won, Norway and Iceland are awful).

We need more internal selections tbh.

I love 5 songs from the Latvian selection (Legzdina x Bel Tempo, Tautumeitas, Kobra, Chris Noah and Greta - love all).

The Israel effect hit every country hard yeah.

Nobody wants to do it anymore after the disasters from last year.

I WARNED this would happen. I SAID that this is exactly why Israel should have been kicked pre-emptively before their inclusion would tarnish the contest's reputation.

They have not, and now most nfs are SHIT.

 

[Looren]

I'm still hearing Lenn's voice wishing me a good morning...... someone send help.........

 

[EscGeek]

For me it's the exact opposite, apart from Spain, Latvia has the most disappointing line up. Estonia is serving quantity, Finland is serving quality, Croatia, Moldova and surprisingly Malta all came through with a sizeable buffet. And countries such as Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Iceland, Norway as well as Montenegro and Albania have one song that i'm totally obsessing over.

Internal selections is a different story, i'm keeping my mind open, but i have no expectations from guys from Czechia, Netherlands and Cyprus.

 

[mauve]

I'm still hearing Lenn's voice wishing me a good morning...... someone send help.........

 

[Deluxenite]

I'm still hearing Lenn's voice wishing me a good morning...... someone send help.........

I watched the show with my mum last night and she actually liked him the most. Also when LEEZ came on she was like "ugh, her again" which is exactly a summary of how I am thinking about her

 

[rasmuslights]

For me it's the exact opposite, apart from Spain, Latvia has the most disappointing line up. Estonia is serving quantity, Finland is serving quality, Croatia, Moldova and surprisingly Malta all came through with a sizeable buffet. And countries such as Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Iceland, Norway as well as Montenegro and Albania have one song that i'm totally obsessing over.

Internal selections is a different story, i'm keeping my mind open, but i have no expectations from guys from Czechia, Netherlands and Cyprus.

For Cyprus same

 

[rasmuslights]

The Israel effect hit every country hard yeah.

Nobody wants to do it anymore after the disasters from last year.

I WARNED this would happen. I SAID that this is exactly why Israel should have been kicked pre-emptively before their inclusion would tarnish the contest's reputation.

They have not, and now most nfs are SHIT.

I think this especially hurt the Nordics where most artists are very "woke" (I do not mean that in a negative way). Most artists in other countries are more apolitical, I believe, in most countries there were no petitions to boycott esc as they were in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

I just don't understand why Nordic broadcasters didn't join Slovenia's call to exclude Israel.

 

[Sammy]

The Israel effect hit every country hard yeah.

Nobody wants to do it anymore after the disasters from last year.

I WARNED this would happen. I SAID that this is exactly why Israel should have been kicked pre-emptively before their inclusion would tarnish the contest's reputation.

They have not, and now most nfs are SHIT.

Excuse me but that is the most far fetched reasoning I have EVER encountered. At this point I label this as satire.

 

[rasmuslights]

Excuse me but that is the most far fetched reasoning I have EVER encountered. At this point I label this as satire.

I actually really think it has affected the Nordic selections (I even think that Stig Karlsen has said something about having trouble finding artists that would like to participate)... In other countries probably not.

That being said, MGP and Songvakeppnin haven't been strong for a long time, not just this year.

 

[Sammy]

I actually really think it has affected the Nordic selections (I even think that Stig Karlsen has said something about having trouble finding artists that would like to participate)... In other countries probably not.

That being said, MGP and Songvakeppnin haven't been strong for a long time, not just this year.

Well I dont and there‘s no valid reason for such an arguing, which is completely based on personal taste and speculation. Sorry.

 

[rasmuslights]

Well I dont and there‘s no valid reason for such an arguing, which is completely based on personal taste and speculation. Sorry.

Well, it's not based on speculation. When 500 artists from a country of 300.000 boycott a contest, it will have an impact.

From Iceland — Icelandic Artists Participating In Nordic Eurovision Boycott Initiative

The EurovisiOFF social media campaign protesting the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest was launched by a grassroots group of Nordic artists Thursday evening.

grapevine.is

Norway: Artists ask for Israel's exclusion from Eurovision 2024! - Eurovision News | Music | Fun

Almost 300 Norwegian artists have signed a petition against Israel’s participation in Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö. “We want NRK to take more responsibility”, says Marthe Valle, one of the singers included in the petition. Ane Brun, Aurora and the group Karpe are some of those who have...

eurovisionfun.com

 

[BorisBubbles]

For me it's the exact opposite, apart from Spain, Latvia has the most disappointing line up. Estonia is serving quantity, Finland is serving quality, Croatia, Moldova and surprisingly Malta all came through with a sizeable buffet. And countries such as Belgium, Poland, Luxembourg, Greece, Iceland, Norway as well as Montenegro and Albania have one song that i'm totally obsessing over.

Internal selections is a different story, i'm keeping my mind open, but i have no expectations from guys from Czechia, Netherlands and Cyprus.

Well more proof that the supernova truthers are right. (this is what an actual parody account types like, Sammy...x)

I think this especially hurt the Nordics where most artists are very "woke" (I do not mean that in a negative way). Most artists in other countries are more apolitical, I believe, in most countries there were no petitions to boycott esc as they were in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

I just don't understand why Nordic broadcasters didn't join Slovenia's call to exclude Israel.

Exactly! I am BAFFLED that the boycotts haven't been a MAJOR concern for every official the second they were announced. If a lot of talent doesn't want to do ESC, then who is left? Those who are extremely passionate about Eurovision, those who are very desperate to do Eurovision and those who are deluded enough to think they can do Eurovision.

Norway is the most obvious example and they were hit the hardest out of everyone so far. Luxembourg dropped from over 300 submissions to 62. Belgium and Sweden also had petitions calling for a boycott.

Frankly, I'm surprised it isn't worse. I was expecting a steep drop across all NFs. Not all NFs have been hit as badly as MGP and some are even better than last year. UMK is better than it was last year, for instance.

Israel's participation has always been a bit contentious, but hopefully everything will be alright if they can maintain the ceasefire they just signed. It will still be a weird year to be a eurofan in, especially if Israel once again send a fucking propaganda song to the contest (PLEASE DON'T. Just do a legally distinct feker libi or whatever) but the controversy should die down a bit in the coming months. Whether that's enough for this year's contest, I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see and pre-emptively accept that most selections are open-and-shut affairs, and that the internals will carry.

 

[BorisBubbles]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cI0GqAKcke4&ab_channel=EurovisionAlex&loop=0

Two second snippets are meaningless but even these slivers make me think either Jelle or Sebastian will win the selection.

 

[Datura]

i don't think the national final is that bad so far (additionally i don't think there's a drop of quality in most other countries either), in Belgium i think from the first four fille a papa should be the clear frontrunner

grace is too much copy & paste from chanel, air balloon is partly cringe but has a certain charme aswell and perfectly imperfect is alright but nothing special imo.

 

[ESC94]

Ok, whatever the reason is that is currently #1 in the odds, we didn´t hear it yesterday.

The overall level is veery mediocre to say it in a polite way, with a big lowlight that sadly haunts our poor @Looren.

4. Lenn - Air Balloon: This strange smile at the beginning is already creeping me out, looks like a JW trying to sell the newest edition of "The Watchtower". And then he starts to sing with this super thin voice and it just keeps getting worse towards the end. The rhythm is also not something revolutionary and in the end I just wanna put him into an air balloon and send him faaaaar away. Doesn´t matter where, as long as it isn´t Basel!! I give for the effort but this is a disaster waiting to happen if that wins.

3. Grace - Pull Up: She´s very professional an I like her stage presence, but sadly her voice doesn´t sound that great. And musically this is basically the copy of the copy of the copy of "Fuego" or any other dance song we´ve heard in the past ten years. It´s super cheap and rather suitable for stage of the Leuven town festival. I give , a bit better but also a sure NQ in my opinion.

2. Le Manou - Fille à papa: It´s a catchy tune and stays in your head for a long time, her voice on the other side is just a bit too girly like for my taste. It get´s better as the song progresses but I can´t really get behind it. In the end I give a solid , nothing to be ashamed of in case of a win but just not that special either.

1. Leez - Perfectly Imperfect: I could basicall copy @Mainshow here. The Chorus is great (too many "yooous" though) but her voice in the verses is a bit too flat. All in all I enjoyed this entry the most and with a decent staging this could at least reach the final. I give this a solid , nothing groundbreaking but still alright.

There´s still a lot more possible and I just hope for the other four songs to be better.