Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961

Belgium was represented by Bob Benny, with the song '"September, gouden roos", at the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 18 March in Cannes, France. The song was chosen in the national final on 29 January. Benny had previously represented Belgium in the 1959 contest. Future Belgian entrant Jacques Raymond (1963 & 1971) finished runner-up in the final.

Eurovision Song Contest 1961
Country Belgium
National selection
Selection processEurosong
Selection date(s)29 January 1961
Selected entrantBob Benny
Selected song"September, gouden roos"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Hans Flower
  • Wim Brabants
Finals performance
Final result15th, 1 point
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1960 • 1961 • 1962►

Before Eurovision

National final

National final were held on 29 February 1961 at Amerikaans Theater in Brussels and hosted by Aimée De Smet. Six songs took part with the winner being chosen by an "expert" jury. It is not known by what system the songs were scored.[1]

29 January 1961
Draw Artist Song Points Place
1 Tony Sandler "Moeder" 8 6
2 Jacques Raymond "Als je weent, als je lacht" 40 2
3 Jo Leemans "Af en toe" 33 3
4 Bob Benny "September, gouden roos" 60 1
5 Luc van Hoeselt "Bonjour" 21 4
6 Enny Denita "Maandenkrans der liefde" 14 5

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Bob Benny performed 11th in the running order, following Switzerland and preceding Norway.

At the close of the voting "September, Gouden Roos" had received only 1 point (from Luxembourg), placing Belgium joint last (with Austria) of the 16 competing entries. The Belgian jury split its 10 points between Norway (5), Italy (4) and the United Kingdom (1).[2]

Voting

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

Trivia
  • According to Dutch newspaper Het vrije volk, conductor Francis Bay was not happy that Belgium didn't receive a single point from the Dutch juries, while the French-speaking countries were "forming a block" according to him. He proposed to set up a voting block with the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.[4]

References
  1. ESC National Finals database 1961
  2. ESC History - Belgium 1961
  3. "Results of the Final of Cannes 1961". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  4. "Gevonden in Delpher - Het vrije volk : Democratisch-socialistisch dagblad".
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.