Belgium was represented by
Bob Benny, with the song "September, gouden roos", at the
1961 Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest 1961 was the 6th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Once again, the contest was held in the French seaside city of Cannes, having also hosted the . Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and ho ...
, which took place on 18 March in
Cannes,
France. The song was chosen in the national final on 29 February. Benny had previously represented Belgium in the
1959 contest. Future Belgian entrant
Jacques Raymond
Jacques Raymond (born Jozef Remon on 13 October 1938) is a Belgian singer.
He represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 with the Dutch song "Waarom?". In the Eurovision Song Contest 1971, 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, he teamed u ...
(
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...
and
1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
) finished runner-up in the final.
Before Eurovision
Finale van de Belgische Bijdrage tot het Songfestival
''Finale van de Belgische Bijdrage tot het Songfestival'' was the national final format developed by BRT in order to select Belgium's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1961. The competition was held on 29 February 1961 at the Amerikaans Theater in
Brussels and hosted by Aimée De Smet.
Competing entries
BRT opened a submission period for artists and composers to submit their songs. 381 entries were submitted, from which the broadcaster selected 6 for the contest. Among the participants were Louis Neefs and Rina Pia; however, they withdrew their songs from the contest due to the fact that they thought that their songs were "not that good to perform". Ultimately, they were replaced with Luc Van Hoeselt and Enny Denita.
Final
The national final was held on 29 February 1961 at 21:00 CET at the Amerikaans Theater in Brussels and hosted by Aimée De Smet. Six songs took part with the winner being chosen by an "expert" jury. It is not known by what system the songs were scored.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final
Bob Benny performed 11th in the running order, following
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
and preceding
Norway.
At the close of the voting "September, gouden roos" had received only 1 point (from
Luxembourg), placing Belgium joint last (with
Austria) of the 16 competing entries. The Belgian jury split its 10 points between Norway (5),
Italy (4) and the
United Kingdom (1).
Voting
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.
Trivia
* According to Dutch newspaper ''Het vrije volk'', conductor
Francis Bay was not happy that Belgium didn't receive a single point from the Dutch juries, while the French-speaking countries were "forming a block" according to him. He proposed to set up a voting block with the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.
References
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1961
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba ( Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...