Belgium was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1969 The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Madrid, Spain, following the country's victory at the with the song " La La La" by Massiel. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU ...

with the song "Jennifer Jennings", composed by Paul Quintens, with lyrics by Phil van Cauwenbergh, and performed by

Louis Neefs Louis Neefs (born Ludwig Adèle Maria Jozef Neefs, 8 August 1937 – 25 December 1980) was a Belgian singer and presenter, known for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contests of 1967 and 1969. Early career Neefs was training for a career ...

. The Belgian participating broadcaster, Dutch-speaking (BRT), selected its entry through a national final, after having previously selected the performer internally. Neefs had previously represented .

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

In December 1968, BRT announced that they had internally selected Louis Neefs to represent Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969.

was the national final format developed by BRT in order to select the Belgian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1969.

Competing entries

Following the announcement of Neefs as Belgian representative, a song submission period was opened where composers were able to submit their songs until 24 January 1969. 127 songs were received by the broadcaster at the end of the deadline, and on 28 January 1969, six were selected for the national final.

Final

The final was held on 22 February 1969 from 9:05 to 10:00 CET at the Amerikaans Theater in Brussels and was hosted by Jan Theys. Six songs competed in the contest, with the winner being decided upon by a 7-member jury panel who each chose their favourite song. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guest performers included Barry Ryan and

Noëlle Cordier Noëlle Cordier (born 7 April 1944) is a French singer. She participated for France in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with the song "Il doit faire beau là-bas", finishing in third place of 17 entries (behind the runaway winner Sandi ...

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Neefs performed 10th in the running order, following and preceding . Neefs is remembered for his quirky performance, which involved throwing his arms in the air in an apparently random manner. At the close of the voting "Jennifer Jennings" had received 10 points (3 from the , 2 from , , and Switzerland and 1 from the ), placing Belgium joint 7th (with ) of the 16 competing entries. The result matched Neefs' 7th place in 1967. The Belgian jury awarded its highest mark (3) to joint contest winners Spain.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1969

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969

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 ...