Belgium was represented by

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

, with the song "Jennifer Jennings", at the

1969 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1969 was the 14th edition of the annual 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 U ...

, which took place on 29 March in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. Neefs was chosen internally to be the Belgian representative, and the song was chosen in the national final on 22 February. Neefs had previously represented Belgium in the 1967 contest in

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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.

Nationale Finale Eurovisiesongfestival

''Nationale Finale Eurovisiesongfestival'' was the national final format developed by BRT in order to select Belgium's 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 San ...

At Eurovision

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

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and preceding

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 ...

. 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

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, 2 from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

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and Switzerland and 1 from the

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), placing Belgium joint 7th (with

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

) 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.ESC History - Belgium 1969
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Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1969

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969

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 ...