Thirty-nine countries are competing with the aim to lift the trophy in Malmö. The seventh country to be introduced is Belgium. The country is a founding member of the Eurovision Song Contest and won it once in 1986. This year Roberto Bellarosa will carry the Belgian hopes in Sweden.

Basic information

Performer: Roberto Bellarosa
Song: Love kills
Language: English
Music: Iain James, Jukka Immonen
Lyrics: Iain James, Jukka Immonen

The song

This year’s Belgian entry is an uptempo and its main theme is the bitter of love. The singer is singing about a girl that is heart broken because the guy is having his last breath for life.

So the arrow shot right through her heart and rocked her to the core
And she fell so deep like she had never fell so deep before
But the pain was almost unbelievable
When the end was near, she felt the fear alive

Waiting for the bitter pill
Give me something i can feel
‘Cos love kills over and over
Love kills over and over
Waiting for the bitter pill
Something i can truly feel
‘Cos love kills over and over
Love kills over and again

The performer

Roberto Bellarosa is a Belgian singer of Italian origin. Bellarosa came to fame for being the first winner of The Voice Belgique. Bellarosa was enrolled by his parents at the age of 9 at the Conservatoire de Huy to learn music theory. During a session of singing, his teacher noticed his voice and his parents pushed him to take singing lessons. On 6 July 2012, Bellarosa released his first single Je crois, working with his The Voice Belgique coach, Quentin Mosimann. His first album Ma voie was released on 21 September 2012, and his second single Apprends-Moi was released on 26 October 2012.

The songwriters

The song is written by Iain James, Jukka Immonen. Iain James is a singer, songwriter and vocal producer from Bristol, but based in London. James is co-writer of the Azeri winning entry Running scared performed by Ell & Nikki. His songs had been recorded by artists as diverse as Professor Green, Little Mix, Craig David and One Direction. He co-wrote British number one Read all about it by Professor Green feat. Emeli Sandé, as well as Emeli’s own version of the song which appears on her million selling album Our version of events’, the number one single by Little mix wings. Jukka Immonen is a Finnish musician, record producer and composer. During his career, Jukka Immonen has worked with a number of domestic and foreign artists, such as Jenni Vartiainen, Anna Abreu, Anssi Kela, Mariska & Pahat Sudet and Margaret Berger. Immonen has also composed music for Finnish films and television.

The national selection

Roberto Bellarosa was internally selected to represent Belgium. In a radio show three songs were aired and the listeners together with the RTBF jury chose Love kills.

Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest

French broadcaster RTBF is to select the Belgian entry every second year taking turns with the other broadcaster VRT. History shows that the French speaking broadcaster was far more successful having provided the only Belgian winning song in 1986 and the only two second placed entries in 1978 and 2003. The last entry submitted by the Flemish broadcaster that made the top ten took part in 1977 until 2010, when Tom Dice reached sixth place in the final. Belgium has been eliminated during the semi finals every year between 2005 and 2009. In the last two years Belgium also did not manage to qualify to the final.

Statistics

This will be Belgium’s 55th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the twenty-sixth time that the country is represented by a male solo singer. The last time the French speaking broadcaster (RTBF) selected a male solo singer was in 2009 when Patrick Ouchène performed Copycat in Moscow.

Belgian vote in Eurovision

Throughout its history in the Eurovision Song Contest, Belgium gave its most points to the United Kingdom. On the other hand neighbouring Holland gave its most points to Belgium.

The betting odds

According to oddschecker.com, Belgium is currently standing at number 39 i.e. last in the odds to win the Eurovision Song Contest and at number 15 to qualify to the final from semi-final one.

We wensen België en Roberto Bellarosa veel geluk en een goed resultaat in Malmö!
Nous souhaitons bonne chance à la Belgique et à Roberto Bellarosa. Marquez un bon résultat à Malmö!
Wir wünschen Belgien und Roberto Bellarosa viel Glück und eine gute Platzierung in Malmö!

Videos

Preview clip

Live version of Love kills

Reste toi

Tomorrow another country will be introduced (Hope that the microphone will work for her)

Have your say

You can rate the Belgian entry by voting in our poll

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You can view previous parts of this series by clicking here