Introduction

• Participant(s): Sennek
• Song: "A Matter Of Time"
  
• Writer(s): Laura Groeseneken, Alex Callier, Maxime Tribeche
• Composer(s): Laura Groeseneken, Alex Callier, Maxime Tribeche
• Broadcaster: VRT
  
• Social media:   
  
• Team review: 

Belgium was the first country to announce the singer for Lisbon in September last year, the song has been revealed in March. The choice of the Belgian broadcaster VRT felt to Laura Grossenken, also known as Sennek. The artist name origins from Laura’s family name. This year it will the 61st participation of Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest. Almost no other country is so eager in participating like Belgium is. Even if Belgium not always qualifies for the Grand Finals, the trend looks quite prosperously, since 2015 Belgium reached #4 in 2015, #10 in 2016 and #4 in 2017.

Laura Senneken was born in Leuven, Belgium in 1990. She is a singer and songwriter and plays the piano and keyboard with the Belgian musician Ozark Henry. Beside her music career she is working as visual merchandiser for Ikea and also works as a vocal coach in her home town Leuven. Her music genre can be described as a mix of soul, electro and pop. And it’s quite obvious that Laura has fondness of James Bond music. She had the chance to perform at the Gent Film Festival together with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra “Tomorrow Never Dies”  Laura has also co-written songs for Hooverphonic like “Gravity”  which also underlines her good taste of music. In the song presentation of the ESC song Laura has been performing last year’s winning entry “Amar Pelos Dois” in English  in very touching way.

The Belgian song “A Matter Of Time” is an English song in the music style of a Bond movie. That has worked very well four years ago, when Conchita Wurst sang another Bond styled song “Rise Like A Phoenix”. This year’s Belgian song is different even though, but it seems to become like a dark horse in Lisbon. It all depends on her live performance and stage show. Probably her minimalistic attitude and sobriety and Laura’s preference for Scandinavian design will show off in the presentation in Lisbon. This entry should not be underestimated!

History

• Debut: 1956
• Participations: 61
• Victories: 1
• Finals: 52 (6 since 2004)
• Top 10: 25
• Chances for Top 10: 43%
• Chances for Final: 40% (since 2004)

Belgium is participating for the 61st time in the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Due to the fact the Belgium has two languages and regions Flanders and Wallonia the Belgian representative is being provided alternately each year. Well, it cannot be said, which part of Belgium is sending more successful songs, both Wallonia and Flanders are eager to deliver the best quality, which is visible in the good results especially in the past years.

For the first and so far only time, Belgium could win the ESC back in 1986 with “J’aime La Vie” sung by Sandra Kim. Over all these years there have many good places in the top 10, the closest to win again was “Sanomi” by Urban Trad in 2003 (2nd), furthermore “L'amour ça Fait Chanter La Vie” by Jean Vallée in 1978 (2nd) and recently “Me and my guitar” by Tom Dice in 2010 (6th). Roberto Bellarosa made a 12th place with “Love Kills” in the Grand Final in Malmö 2013, Loïc Nottet could achieve a remarkable 4th place in Vienna with “Rhythm Inside”, Laura Tesoro could make another great 10th place with “What’s The Pressure” in Stockholm 2016 and last year’s singer Blanche could achieve a great 4th place in the Grand Final of Kiev. It seems that the Belgians really would like to win it again.

Due to the introduction of the Semi Finals in 2004 some countries are struggling to qualify for the Grand Final. Belgium is one of the countries which had some difficulties in the noughties, only six times Belgium could qualify in the last fourteen. It has also to be taken into consideration that the competition has grown over the years. The Eastern European countries are making the half of the participating countries nowadays, so therefore some well-established countries have to make the way for the new countries and even the non-European country Australia takes part regularly now. The positive thing about it is that it forces the composers to bring higher quality songs into the competition; there is less place for weak songs. But this has paid off lately and Belgium has consequently qualified for the Grand Finals three times in a row.

Biggest successes

1x 1st place

• Sandra Kim | J'aime La Vie (1986)

4x 2nd place

• Fud Leclerc | Messieurs Les Noyés De La Seine (1956)
• Mony Marc | Le Plus Beau Jour De Ma Vie (1956)
• Jean Vallée | L'amour ça Fait Chanter La Vie (1978)
• Urban Trad | Sanomi (2003)
• Blanche | City Lights (2017)

Video Nostalgia

• “Judy Et Cie” – Pierre Rapsat, Rank 8, The Hague 1976
• “Si Tu Aimes Ma Musique”- Stella, Rank 4, Harrogate 1982