Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

ESC National Year
Year = 1957
Country = BEL
Preselection = De T.V. Maakt Muziek
Preselection date =
Entrant = Bobbejaan Schoepen
Song = "Straatdeuntje"
Final result = 8th, 5 points

Belgium was represented in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 by Bobbejaan Schoepen with the song "Straatdeuntje", written by Harry Frekin and Eric Franssen and performed in Dutch. The song was chosen during a national final with Schoepen performing all entries.

The national final

In the national final, all three songs were sung by Bobbejaan Schoepen. The three songs were presented during a music show called De T.V. Maakt Muziek. Schoepen obviously has not sung the three entries live but they were rather presented like in video clips. The date of the show is not known although at the beginning, it was announced that a jury would choose the winner. "Straatdeuntje" was the winning song and would become Belgium's third entry in the Eurovision Song Contest (as every country had two songs in the 1956 competition) and the first song submitted by the Flemish broadcaster as well as the first Belgian entry performed in Dutch [ [http://www.diggiloo.net/?be Belgian lyrics at Eurovision] ] .

Participants

At Eurovision

At the Eurovision Song Contest in Frankfurt, the Belgian entry was the first of the night preceding Luxembourg with “Amours mortes (tant de peine)”. Reflecting the song title, the stage was showing the picture of a street in the background. Schoepen delivered, as usual in these days, a simple performance which was remarkable because of the large whistling part in his song. At the close of voting, Belgium had received five points in total; the country finished shared eight among the ten participants. The Belgian jury gave half of its points, five, to the winning country, the Netherlands.

Voting

Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.

Points given

*5 points to the Netherlands
*2 points to France
*1 point to Italy
*1 point to Germany

Points received

*1 point from Switzerland
*2 points from Denmark
*2 points from Germany

Sources

*Jan Feddersen: "Ein Lied kann eine Brücke sein", Hoffmann und Campe 2002
*Recording of the national final
*Recording of the Eurovision Song Contest 1957

References