VRT, the Flemish speaking Belgian national broadcaster, will be opting for a national final in order to determine the 2025 Belgian Eurovision act and entry.

Belgium will be holding a national final in order to determine its Eurovision 2025 entry and act. VRT has opted for a different approach for their forthcoming national selection and have opted to contact record companies, professional managers and producers in order propose artists for the competition. Hence there will not an open call for songs or artists for Eurosong 2025.

The Flemish speaking Belgian broadcaster has received a number of proposals from the record labels and professional managers and producers. After shortlisting the proposed artists VRT has commissioned the remaining artists to produce 2 new songs by September. Hereafter VRT will further shortlist a yet to be determined number of artists/songs for the 2025 Belgian national final.

Gerrit Kerremans, General Music Coordinator at VRT spoke to Belgian media platform HLN about the upcoming Belgian Eurovision 2025 national final:

We have abandoned the elimination race that is ‘Eurosong’. ‘used to be, and will no longer, organize preliminary rounds, semi-finals and a final.

We have noticed that such a formula is especially interesting for novice artists who could use any exposure, but it deters many established artists because of the possible loss of face.

We have also abandoned the formula whereby absolutely anyone can submit a song. In the past we received thousands of submissions and that put too many songwriters to work unnecessarily.

Karremmans goes on to add:

Because the bar is very high at the festival, we looked for artists who can perform strongly live.

In addition to singing talent, the artists must also have a lot of stage experience. In addition, we opt for a total package and we are looking for an artist who is also well surrounded. Those who receive professional guidance also perform better.

We did not launch a public call for our search, but contacted professional labels, managers and producers ourselves to ask if they wanted to propose artists. They know where the talent is. We did not retain more than half of their submissions. The rest meet our minimum requirements and we will continue with them. One of them will be our candidate.

We are now on to the next step: the remaining artists have been commissioned to compose two new songs by September. We will then listen to them and then we will make the decision and decide which artists will be left with which songs and will go to the competition on TV.

Karremans concludes:

Everyone was asked not to make their candidacy or information about the competition public. In September, some artists can still decide to withdraw, for example if they have not found a suitable song. Our A&R team (Artist & Repertoire) will then also make a selection, so that some artists will be eliminated and we will be left with the intended number.

In 2024 Mustii represented Belgium at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo with his entry ‘Before The Party’s Over’.

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Photo credit: EBU