Belgium was represented by Nathalie Sorce with the song "Envie de vivre" at the

2000 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was the 45th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Take Me to Your Heaven" by Charlotte Nilsson. Organised by the Europea ...

, which took place in Stockholm on 13 May. Sorce was the winner of the Belgian national final for the contest, held in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on 18 February. French-language broadcaster RTBF was in charge of the selection of the Belgian entry for the 2000 Contest.

Before Eurovision

Finale Nationale Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 2000

The final took place on 18 February 2000 at the RTBF Studio 6, hosted by

Jean-Pierre Hautier Jean-Pierre Hautier (18 October 1955 – 12 October 2012) was a Belgian television presenter and broadcaster for RTBF. Hautier was known for his long-time commentary for RTBF viewers on the Eurovision Song Contest which he has done since the ...

. A public televote determined the winner, "Envie de vivre" performed by Nathalie Sorce. The results of the public televote were revealed by Belgium's six regions (four Walloon provinces with votes from Namur and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

being combined, a "Rest of Belgium" region covering the five

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

provinces, and

) and led to the victory of Sorce by a margin of over 3,500 votes.

Controversy

After the final, there was initially some degree of uncertainty about the disproportionately high number of votes to Sabrina Klinkenberg from the province of Liège, but RTBF subsequently confirmed that it was correct, citing the fact that Klinkenberg was a native of that province as the most probable explanation, and pointing out that Sorce had also received an exceptionally high number of votes from her home province of Hainaut.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Sorce performed 10th in the running order, following

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

and preceding

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

. A somewhat shrill and at times off-key vocal performance, combined with a much-criticised choice of outfit, contributed towards an ignominious result, with only 2 points received and a last place finish of the 24 entrants, the eighth time that Belgium had finished at the foot of the Eurovision scoreboard. The 12 points from the Belgian televote were awarded to Latvia.ESC History - Belgium 2000
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Voting

References

External links

Belgian Preselection 2000
{{Eurovision Song Contest 2000

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 Eurovision