Belgium was represented by

Emly Starr Emly Starr (born 5 September 1957 in Laarne, Belgium; birth name Marie-Christine Mareels) is a Belgian disco singer. She also appeared in the documentary film ''Santiago Lovers'' by Romano Ferrari. She has participated in several dance and song ...

, with the song "Samson", at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

on 4 April.

Before Eurovision

Eurosong

The Belgian preselection consisted of three heats, followed by the final on 7 March 1981. All the shows took place at the Amerikaans Theater 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 ...

, hosted by Luc Appermont. Future Belgian representatives Stella Maessen (

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

) and

Liliane Saint-Pierre Liliane Saint-Pierre (born Liliane Louise Keuninckx, 18 December 1948) is a Belgian pop singer. Hailing from Flanders, she sings mostly in Dutch. She competed at Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with the song " Soldiers of Love". Biography Liliane ...

(

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

) also took part in the selection.

Heats

Three heats were held with twelve songs in each, from which the top ten songs across the heats went forward to the final. The songs were not voted on at the time, but after the final heat a recap of all 36 songs was broadcast and viewers were then invited to vote for ten of the songs. Voting took place by the unusual means of filling out and submitting a lottery-style form. Prizes such as cars, holidays and home entertainment equipment were on offer to those who managed to forecast all ten qualifying songs correctly, and it is believed that over 180,000 forms were sent in. This led to some criticism that viewers were being asked to vote not for their own favourite songs, but rather for those which they thought would have the widest appeal to other people.

Final

The final was held on 7 March 1981 with the winning song chosen by a 7-member "expert" jury. Only the winner was announced, but it is understood that Liliane Saint-Pierre came second.

At Eurovision

Prior to the contest, the song title was shortened to "Samson". On the night of the final Starr performed 16th in the running order, following

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and preceding

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. At the close of the voting "Samson" had received 40 points (the highest being 8 from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

), placing Belgium 13th of the 20 entries. The Belgian jury awarded its 12 points to

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

.ESC History - Belgium 1981
/ref>

Voting

References

External links

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1981

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1981

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 ...