Belgium was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 with the song "Soldiers of Love", written by Gyuri Spies, Marc de Coen, and Liliane Saint-Pierre, and performed by Saint-Pierre herself. The Belgian participating broadcaster, Flemish (BRT), selected its entry through a national final. In addition, Walloon (RTBF) was the host broadcaster and staged the event at the Centenary Palace in Brussels, after winning the with the song "J'aime la vie" by Sandra Kim.

Before Eurovision

Organization Flemish broadcaster (BRT) competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987 for Belgium, while Walloon broadcaster (RTBF) hosted the event due to them winning the previous year. BRT decided to host another edition of Eurosong to select their entry for Eurovision.

Eurosong '87 Competing entries BRT had asked professionals from the music scene, record companies, producers, and publishers to propose artists to compete in Eurosong '87. The artists did not necessarily have to have had a song ready. More than seventy artists had been submitted by the end of the submission period. On 12 December 1986, a 12-member jury assessed the artists and chose twelve to compete in Eurosong '87. The jury consisted of: three members of SABAM (Mary Boduin, Ben Gyselinck, and Els Van Den Abeele), three representatives from Belgian TV (Tom Huybrechts, Marc Maes, and Johannes Thuy), three representatives from Belgian radio (Ro Burms, Paul De Wijngart, and Nora Nys), and three representatives from the press (Paul Cajot, Toni Smeulders, and Guido Van Liefferinge). The twelve chosen artists were: Daan Van Den Durpel, Angie Dylan, Margriet Hermans, Bart Kaëll, Curt Lawrence, Dan O'Neil, Sonia Pelgrims, Sofie, Liliane Saint-Pierre, John Terra, Vincent, and Judith Vindevogel. However, a few weeks before the final, withdrew after a dispute with her producer. Artist Song Songwriter(s) Angie Dylan "Zeventien" Bart Kaëll "Carrousel" Curt Lawrence "De dans der macht" Marc Vanhie Daan Van Den Durpel "Gigolo" Dan O'Neil "Oh, mon amour" Ron Marron John Terra "Champagne voor iedereen" Liliane Saint-Pierre "Soldiers of Love" Margriet Hermans "In Slow Motion" Sofie "Door jou" Sonia Pelgrims "Casanova" Vincent "De wereld als ik droom"

Final The national final was broadcast live at 20:20 CET on 14 March 1987 from the in Brussels, and was hosted by Luc Appermont. The BRT Orchestra was conducted by Freddy Sunder. Voting was done by regional juries in the five Flemish provinces of Belgium, each consisting of forty television viewers between the ages of 16 and 60, and a professional jury. The professional jury comprised the same twelve members that chose the participating artists. All jury members voted by giving each entry a score out of ten. Saint-Pierre emerged the winner by a 5-point margin, having been placed first by four of the regional juries (and second by the other), but being ranked only sixth by the professional jury.

+ Final – 14 March 1987 Artist Song Points Place 1 John Terra "Champagne voor iedereen" 43 3 2 Dan O'Neil "Oh, mon amour" 19 9 3 Vincent "De wereld als ik droom" 0 11 4 Margriet Hermans "In Slow Motion" 25 7 5 Daan Van Den Durpel"Gigolo" 37 5 6 Bart Kaëll"Carrousel" 58 2 7 Angie Dylan "Zeventien" 40 4 8Sonia Pelgrims"Casanova" 24 8 9 Curt Lawrence "De dans der macht" 9 10 10Sofie "Door jou" 30 6 11 Liliane Saint-Pierre "Soldiers of Love"631 + Detailed jury votesSong rowspan="2" Regional JuriesTotal 1"Champagne voor iedereen"666108743 2"Oh, mon amour"33242519 3"De wereld als ik droom" 0 4"In Slow Motion"18725225 5"Gigolo"87574637 6"Carrousel"121088101058 7"Zeventien"251267840 8"Casanova"74333424 9"De dans der macht"4111119 10"Door jou"102456330 11"Soldiers of Love"5121012121263

At Eurovision On the night of the final Saint-Pierre performed 5th in the running order, following and preceding . At the close of the voting "Soldiers of Love" had received 56 points with votes from 12 countries (the highest mark being 8 from the ), placing Belgium 11th out of 22 entries. The Belgian jury awarded its 12 points to contest winners .

The contest was shown on TV1 with commentary by Luc Appermont, and RTBF1. It was also broadcast on a radio station BRT 2.

Voting

+ Points awarded to Belgium Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Belgium Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

References