Straatdeuntje

Belgium was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 with the song "", composed by Harry Frekin, with lyrics by Eric Franssen, and performed by Bobbejaan Schoepen. The Dutch-speaking department of the Belgian participating broadcaster, the (NIR/INR), selected its entry through a national final, after having previously selected the performer internally.

Before Eurovision

The (NIR/INR), whose official name in Dutch was (NIR), delegated its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957 to its Dutch-speaking department. NIR used an internal selection to choose Bobbejaan Schoepen as its artist. Schoepen was contacted by telegram by NIR in 1956 while being on tour in the United States. The broadcaster announced Schoepen as the Belgian entrant in late January 1957.

Format

NIR opted to select their entry with a ten-member expert jury panel. It also presented the competing entries to the public in a special edition of the TV program .

Competing entries

In order to select a song, NIR asked seven composers to write one song each for Schoepen, with each composer choosing freely their lyricist. The expert jury selected three of them for a national final.

The jury was appointed by , director of the Dutch-speaking department. It consisted of (deputy head of TV), Francis Bay (conductor), Robert Bosmans (Charles Bens), (NIR music program director), (NIR musical director), Jack Kluger (music publisher), Albert Rollewagen (music publisher), (NIR TV director) and (singer), with Marcel Poot (composer) acting as jury president.

Since Schoepen was still in the United States, the jury based its first selection upon recordings of the songs with other artists. The singers of the three finalist songs are unknown, but the singers of the other four are known as they were performed by their artists during the episode of .

According to André Vermeulen, "" was possibly sung by , " 'Gay Paree" possibly by Eric Franssen, and one of the three songs was sung by Terry Lester.

was a monthly television program on NIR with light music and dance performances, without any presenter. On 19 February 1957, an edition of the show was aired which featured the competing songs for the national selection. It was produced in the Sonart studio in Brussels. It was broadcast on 20:45 CET (19:45 UTC) on NIR and also in the Netherlands on (NTS), with a duration of 45 minutes. was produced by and directed by Charles "Chuck" Kerremans.

During the program, Bobbejaan Schoepen performed the three finalist songs. In addition, the four eliminated entries were also performed during the program, in this case by the original artists. The performances were accompanied by the NIR entertainment orchestra, conducted by Francis Bay, and the Oscar Denayer ensemble.

The show featured a large artificial long-distance telephone switchboard where each upcoming performance was announced through its title and an association with a location. was praised by TV magazine ''De TV-kijker'' for its set design by Jean Marlier, which included also an authentic watermill with running water and an autumn landscape. It also called the show "one of the best presented programs on Belgian television." In contrast, Dutch newspaper ''Het Parool'' called the national final entries "old-fashioned" and the style of the whole show "childish and amateurish".

Final selection

It was planned that both a jury and members of the general public should be able to vote in order to decide Belgium's entry. Initial plans foresaw public voting taking place in several cities, among them Brussels and Antwerp. NIR later dropped the idea of the audience having their say, announcing that the jury alone was entirely representative.

Voting in the final was done by a jury consisting of the same ten-member panel as for the selection of the entries of the national final, with Gerd Mertens voting instead of either Robert Bosmans or jury president Marcel Poot.

The jury panel prepared to vote by watching the final of the Sanremo Music Festival 1957 and listening to the Dutch entry.

Each jury member made a ranking of the three songs and the ranking positions then were summed so that the winner was the song with the lowest total score. "", written by Harry Frekin with lyrics by Eric Franssen, came first with a score of 16. On 20 February 1957, ''De Telegraaf'' reported that "" had been selected as the Belgian entry.

At Eurovision

At the Eurovision Song Contest in Frankfurt, the Belgian entry was the first of the night, preceding . At the close of voting, Belgium had received five points in total; the country finished shared eight among the ten participants. The Belgian jury gave half of its points, five, to the winning country, the Netherlands.

Eurovision Song Contest 1957 was broadcast in Belgium on the television channels of NIR and INR, as well as on NIR's Dutch-Language radio.

Voting

Each participating broadcaster assembled a ten-member jury panel. Every jury member could give one vote to their favourite song. The Belgian jury consisted of the same members as for the selection of the songs for the national final, i.e. , Francis Bay, Robert Bosmans, , , Jack Kluger, Albert Rollewagen, , , and Marcel Poot.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belgium In The Eurovision Song Contest 1957
1957
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1957
Eurovision Song Contest