Belgium was represented at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1978 The Eurovision Song Contest 1978 was the 23rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Paris, France, following the country's victory at the with the song "L'Oiseau et l'Enfant" by Marie Myriam. Organised by the European Broadcas ...

with the song "", written and performed by

Jean Vallée Jean Vallée (born Paul Goeders in Verviers on 2 October 1941 – 12 March 2014, Clermont-sur-Berwinne) was a Belgian songwriter and performer. Vallée was appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown by HM Albert II in 1999. Career In 1967 ...

. The Belgian participating broadcaster, Walloon (RTBF), selected its entry through a national final.

Before Eurovision

Walloon broadcaster (RTBF) had the turn to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978 representing Belgium. Eight songs participated in the selection and the winner was chosen by a 12-member expert jury. The jury was chaired by Henri Billen and consisted of three members from

SABAM SABAM is one of the Belgian associations of authors, composers and publishers. The bilingual acronym stands for "Société d'Auteurs Belge – Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij". Their headquarters is located at 41-43 rue des Deux Eglises in Bruss ...

, three journalists, three people in the radio industry, and three people in the television industry. was broadcast on 8 February 1978 at 20:00

CET CET or cet may refer to: Places * Cet, Albania * Cet, standard astronomical abbreviation for the constellation Cetus * Colchester Town railway station (National Rail code CET), in Colchester, England Arts, entertainment, and media * Comcast En ...

until 20:30 CET on RTBF 1. The jury were then given two hours to vote, and the winner was announced in a short programme at 22:35 CET. The voting was done in three rounds, in the first round three songs qualified to the second round. In the second round two songs qualified to the third and final round, where each jury member had one vote to give to either song. Jean Vallée was the winner of the national final with seven votes in the final round. He had previously represented in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, where he had finished fifth. Another previous Belgian entrant Jacques Hustin () also took part.

At Eurovision

On the evening of the final Vallée performed 10th in the running order, following and preceding the . At the close of the voting "" had received 125 points with votes from all other participating countries apart from and , and including five first-place 12 points votes from , , , , and the . This ranked Belgium second of the 20 competing countries, the highest position achieved by a Belgian entry in Eurovision to that date, which has since only been bettered by

Sandra Kim Sandra Caldarone (born 15 October 1972), better known as Sandra Kim, is a Belgian singer of Italian descent who won the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 in Bergen, Norway. Her father was an Italian immigrant from Torrebruna in the Province of Chie ...

's and matched by Urban Trad in . The Belgian jury awarded its 12 points to contest winners .

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1978

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978

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 ...