Today, we had our first act announcement of the year for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Belgian broadcaster RTBF announced they have selected Eliot Vassamillet to represent Belgium at this years contest in Tel Aviv.
Eliot is best known for appearing on the 2018 edition of The Voice Belgique. After his blind audition, he joined team Slimane and then proceeded through the following rounds, making it to the live shows before being eliminated.
We have yet to hear Eliot’s Eurovision song, however, with Pierre Dumoulin (co-writer of Blanche’s 2017 entry) writing it, it is sure to be a hit. More information regarding the song will be announced in February.
Belgium made its Eurovision debut back in 1956 and has only missed three contests to date. Although appearing in sixty contests over the years, Belgium has only managed to win the contest once: in 1986 with Sandra Kim’s “J’aime la vie”.
Recently, Belgium has been making their mark in the contest, with two top-five finishes and a further top ten finish in the last four years alone. In 2018, Belgium sent Sennek to Lisbon as their representative, and despite delivering a powerful performance, she just missed out in qualifying for the final. Belgium will be hoping Eliot can get them back into the final and maybe even into that top ten again.
You can watch Sennek perform “A Matter Of Time” at the 2018 Eurovison Song Contest below:
To win, Eliot will have to gain the most points out of all the entrants. Announced so far are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, and Jonida Maliqi for Albania. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming months.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 42 countries will compete in the contest.
Finally, don’t forget to tell us what you think about Eliot Vassamillet representing Belgium at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. You can tweet us your thoughts on Twitter @CelebMix.