Belgium was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1972 The Eurovision Song Contest 1972 was the 17th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corpo ...

with the song "", written by Daniel Nélis and Bob Milan, and performed by Serge and Christine Ghisoland. The Belgian participating broadcaster, Walloon (RTB), selected its entry through a national final, after having previously selected the performer internally. The Ghisolands had previously participated in the .

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

In October 1971, Walloon broadcaster (RTB) announced that they had internally selected Serge and Christine Ghisoland to represent Belgium in the

was the national final format developed by RTB in order to select the Belgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. The competition was held on 15 February 1972 and was broadcast on RTB.

Competing entries

Following the announcement of the Ghisolands as Belgian representatives, a song submission period was opened where composers were able to submit their songs until 31 December 1971. RTB received 180 submissions and, in collaboration with

SABAM SABAM is one of the Belgian associations of authors, composers and publishers. The bilingual acronym stands for "Société d'Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij". Their headquarters is located at 41-43 rue des Deux Eglises in Bruss ...

, selected four songs from the received songs to participate in the contest. Several online sources incorrectly state that the national final had 10 songs. This can easily be disproved by newspapers from the time saying the national final had 4 songs, and also that the songs "Marilyn" and "La rose", which are included in that list of 10 songs, were released as a single in 1970, making them ineligible for the Eurovision Song Contest 1972.

Final

The final was broadcast in two parts. The songs were previewed on 28 January 1972, and the public could start sending in postcards. The songs were then shown again on 15 February 1972 and the public could also start televoting. The winner was decided by a combination of the postcard votes and televotes. The final was hosted by Michel Lemaire.

At Eurovision

The contest was broadcast on RTB (with commentary by

Paule Herreman Paule Herreman (1919 – 3 October 1991) was a Belgian actress and television presenter for National Institute of Broadcasting (INR). Career Early life Daughter of the Dutch-speaking poet Raymond Herreman, Paule Herreman studied Germanic ph ...

) and BRT. It was also broadcast on radio station RTB 1. On the night of the final the Ghisolands performed 16th in the running order, following and preceding eventual winner . The song seemed rather quaint and old-fashioned in comparison to many of the year's other entries, and at the close of the voting "" had received 55 points, placing Belgium 17th of the 18 entries, ahead only of . Each participating broadcaster appointed two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated in the Grand Hall of

Edinburgh Castle Edinburgh Castle is a historic castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. It stands on Castle Rock (Edinburgh), Castle Rock, which has been occupied by humans since at least the Iron Age. There has been a royal castle on the rock since the reign of Malcol ...

. The Belgian jury members were Charles Alboort and Denis Grimée.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1972

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...