Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961
Belgium was represented by Bob Benny, with the song '"September, gouden roos", at the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 18 March in Cannes, France. The song was chosen in the national final on 29 January. Benny had previously represented Belgium in the 1959 contest. Future Belgian entrant Jacques Raymond (1963 & 1971) finished runner-up in the final.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1961 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Belgium | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Eurosong | |||
| Selection date(s) | 29 January 1961 | |||
| Selected entrant | Bob Benny | |||
| Selected song | "September, gouden roos" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 15th, 1 point | |||
| Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Final
The venue and host of the national final are currently unknown. Six songs took part with the winner being chosen by an "expert" jury. It is not known by what system the songs were scored.[1]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Sandler | "Moeder" | 8 | 6 |
| 2 | Jacques Raymond | "Als je weent, als je lacht" | 40 | 2 |
| 3 | Jo Leemans | "Af en toe" | 33 | 3 |
| 4 | Bob Benny | "September, gouden roos" | 60 | 1 |
| 5 | Luc van Hoeselt | "Bonjour" | 21 | 4 |
| 6 | Enny Denita | "Maandenkrans der liefde" | 14 | 5 |
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Bob Benny performed 11th in the running order, following Switzerland and preceding Norway.
At the close of the voting "September, Gouden Roos" had received only 1 point (from Luxembourg), placing Belgium joint last (with Austria) of the 16 competing entries. The Belgian jury split its 10 points between Norway (5), Italy (4) and the United Kingdom (1).[2]
Voting
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.
Points awarded to Belgium
| Points awarded to Belgium | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 points | 9 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
Points awarded by Belgium
| 10 points | |
| 9 points | |
| 8 points | |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points |  Norway |
| 4 points |  Italy |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point |  United Kingdom |
Trivia
- According to Dutch newspaper Het vrije volk, conductor Francis Bay was not happy that Belgium didn't receive a single point from the Dutch juries, while the French-speaking countries were "forming a block" according to him. He proposed to set up a voting block with the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries.[3]
References
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Note: Entries scored out are when Belgium did not compete | |||||||||||||||||||||