News in from Belgium this afternoon: the country’s 2018 Eurovision representative, Laura Groeseneken, has confirmed that she will perform under her official stage name during her competition participation this coming May.

Back in September, Belgium became the first country to officially confirm their representative for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, revealing that Laura Groeseneken has been internally selected to represent the nation in the host city of Lisbon.

VRT, the Belgian national broadcaster, has been working with the artists over the months to follow; with work still underway in the production of her entry, today is has been confirmed that Groeseneken will go to Lisbon under her artist name this coming May: Sennek.

Why Sennek?

Having created and produced her own music under her stage name for the past number of years, the Belgian artist has opted to perform under that same name for Eurovision 2018.

Revealing more about her choice of name and the reason behind Sennek, the artist confirmed:

I’ve been making music under the artist name Sennek for a while now. I chose that name because it’s a bit mysterious, and it also has a personal link: my last name is Groeseneken. Because I am so closely involved in all the choices during this Eurovision project, it was a logical choice to take on this adventure with my own artist name.

Sennek performing Kaleidoscope live back in March 2017

VRT has confirmed that the Belgian entry for 2018 will be announced in the coming months. In an interview earlier this month, Sennek confirmed that her entry will be under the pop genre, but in a mysterious style.

Semi-final 1 for Sennek and Belgium

It was the semi-final allocation draw day in Lisbon today, in which it was decided which country will be competing in each of the 2 semi-finals this coming May, together with the half of the semi-final they will be performing in.

During today’s draw, it was determined that Belgium will compete in the first half of the first semi-final on the 8 May, with the official running order set to be decided once all of the 2018 entries have been unveiled.

Speaking of her semi-final 1 draw, Sennek revealed:

I didn’t have a preference, but think this is a nice spot in the competition. I have a song, an artist name and now I have a spot in the semi-final. The puzzle pieces are starting to come together. Very exciting!

Further details regarding Belgium at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will be revealed over the coming weeks.