Another day, another confirmation! Our 10 Days of Confirmations continue today with Belgium as VRT has confirmed to ESCToday that the nation will be participating at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest!

Whilst we’ll see Belgium competing in the host city of Lisbon next year, we’ll have to wait a bit longer before we find out how the nation will select their entry for 2018, with the Belgian-Flemish broadcaster, VRT, set to determine their selection method in due course.

In previous years, VRT has traditionally opted to select their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest via a form of national selection, the last of which being in 2016 with Laura Tesoro and her entry What’s the pressure which brought the nation a successful 10th place with 181 points.

How do you think VRT will select Belgium’s entry for 2018? Will the broadcaster stick with the traditional national selection process, or will we see some changes for Lisbon? Let us know your thoughts!

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Belgium at Eurovision

Belgium has been competing at the Eurovision Song Contest since its debut in 1956, going on to make a total of 59 appearances.

From their competing 59 entries, the nation has placed in the Top 5 a total of 10 times over the years, gaining their first and only victory to date in 1986 with Sandra Kim and her entry J’aime la vie.

Belgium has seen a mixture of results at the competition over recent years; having qualified to the final of the contest 6 out of 14 since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Belgium’s most successful results recently were at both the 2015 and 2017 contests, with the Belgian entries each finishing in 4th position.

Blanche brought Belgium one of their best Eurovision results to date in 2017 with City lights

Turn-taking between VRT and RTBF

As has become tradition with Belgium, the nation rotates between their 2 national broadcasters annually in order to select their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest; VRT, the Flemish broadcaster, selects their entries during even-numbered years and RTBF, the French-speaking broadcaster, selects during odd-numbered years.

Recent years have seen RTBF opt for an internal selection for the nation, whilst VRT’s selection process has remained fairly similar over the years, mainly selecting their entries via a national selection process.

Will 2018 be the year of a Top 3 finish for Belgium? Perhaps even a second victory? We’ll find out in Lisbon 2018!

Eurovision 2018

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 is set to take place on the 8, 10 and 12 May in the host city of Lisbon following Salvador Sobral’s victory in Kyiv with his song Amar pelos dois.

Next month sees the confirmation deadline for broadcasters in which to officially send in their applications for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Applied countries then have a grace period to either confirm or withdraw their applications without receiving a penalty.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is set to release a final list of countries set to compete at Eurovision 2018 later in the year.