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Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956

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Eurovision Song Contest 1956
Participating broadcasterInstitut national belge de radiodiffusion (INR)
Country Belgium
National selection
Selection processFinale Nationale du Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson Europeenne
Selection date(s)15 April 1956
Selected artist(s)Fud Leclerc and
Mony Marc
Selected song"Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" and
"Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie"
Selected songwriter(s)"Messieurs les noyés de la Seine":
  • Jean Miret
  • Jack Say
  • Robert Montal

"Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie":
  • David Bée
  • Claude Alix
Finals performance
Final resultN/A
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
1956 • 1957►

Belgium was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 with two songs: "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine", composed by Jean Miret and Jack Say, with lyrics by Robert Montal, and performed by Fud Leclerc; and "Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie", composed by Claude Alix, with lyrics by David Bée, and performed by Mony Marc. The Belgian participating broadcaster, the Institut national belge de radiodiffusion (INR), organised a national final to determine its two entries for the contest. "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" was the first-ever entry from Belgium performed in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the first-ever entry in French in the contest.

Held on 15 April 1956, the national final saw ten songs compete to be the Belgian entries; the results were determined by the jury panel and postcard voting. The Belgian entries performed 3rd and 10th, respectively, out of the 14 entries competing in the contest.

Background

[edit]

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) was formed in 1950 among 23 organisations with the aim of the exchange of television programmes.[1] Following the formation of the EBU, a number of notable events were transmitted through its networks in various European countries, such as Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom.[1] Following this series of transmissions, a "Programme Committee" was set up within the EBU to investigate new initiatives for cooperation between broadcasters.[2] The new European contest, entitled European Grand Prix, was subsequently approved at the EBU's General Assembly in October 1955.[2][3][1] A planning sub-group, was subsequently formed to build out the rules of the competition.[4][5][6] The rules of the contest were finalised and distributed to EBU members in early 1956.[7] Per the rules of the contest, each participating broadcaster submitted two songs into the contest.[8] Belgium was subsequently included on the EBU's list of seven countries whose broadcasters had signed up to partake in the contest.[9]

Belgian broadcasters Nationaal Instituut voor de Radio-omroep (NIR) and Institut national belge de radiodiffusion (INR) both could have participate in the contest, however Flemish broadcaster NIR, busy with its participation in the 1956 Venice International Song Festival, let Walloon broadcaster INR alone hold a selection and participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956.[10][11] This marked the beginning of a year-by-year alternation between the Flemish and the Walloon broadcaster in terms of selection and participation in the contest.[10][11] For the 1956 contest, INR held a national final to choose two songs to represent Belgium.[10]

Before Eurovision

[edit]
Fud Leclerc (pictured in 1958) was selected along with Mony Marc to represent Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956

After a public call for submissions, which ended on 7 March 1956, 436 songs were submitted to INR.[12][10][13] According to the rules of the national final, composers were required to have Belgian citizenship, and only songs in French language were allowed.[14] Ten songs were then selected by a jury panel, consisting of Angèle Guller, Jaap Streefkerk, Peter Packay and René Hénoumont [fr].[10]

Finale Nationale du Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson Europeenne

[edit]

The national final, entitled Finale Nationale du Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson Europeenne, took place on 15 April 1956.[10] It was broadcast on INR at 20:40 CET and was scheduled to last 80 minutes.[15][16] It was directed by Bob Jacqmin and possibly hosted by Jacques Goossens.[10][15] Six artists performed the ten songs: Johnny Grey, Denise Lebrun, Fud Leclerc, Mony Marc [fr], Ghislaine Merry and Janine Michel.[10] The competing entries were performed two times, first in an instrumental version, then sung by one of the artists[10] The artists were accompanied by a small ensemble under the direction of Henri Segers.[10][15]

The songs first faced a jury vote.[10] The jury had 11 members, including René Henoumont [fr], Peter Packay, France Gérard, Jacques Stehman, Steve Kirk, Michette Lelong, Jacques Kluger and Armand Bachelier, with Georges Mathonet acting as jury president.[17] The jury members gave marks to each song, with the music accounting for 60 % of the vote, and the lyrics for 40 %.[18] "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" by Fud Leclerc was selected as the first winner.[10] "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" was composed by Jean Miret and Jack Say, with lyrics by Robert Montal [fr].[10]

From the remaining nine entries, television viewers chose the second winner by postcard voting: "Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie", composed by David Bee, written by Claude Alix, and performed by Mony Marc was selected as the second Belgian entry.[10] Television viewers only had 24 hours to vote.[18]

Each of the ten entries of the national final was awarded 2,500 Belgian francs, the authors of the two winning songs received additional 5,000 Belgian francs.[19]

At Eurovision

[edit]

Eurovision Song Contest 1956 took place at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland, on 24 May 1956.[4] "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" was performed 3rd at the contest and "Le Plus Beau Jour de ma vie" was performed 10th.[4] Both of the Belgian entries were conducted at the contest by the composer Léo Souris.[4] The full results of the contest were not revealed and have not been retained by the EBU.[20] The Belgian French-language broadcaster INR later claimed that Belgium had taken 3rd place.[21]

Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was televised in Belgium on INR and NIR, with French-language INR taking commentary from Swiss Television by Raymond Colbert [fr] and Dutch-language NIR taking commentary from Dutch NTS by Piet de Nuyl Jr.[22][19][23][24] Initially, INR's director of entertainment E. Blondeel had proposed broadcasting a recording later instead of a live broadcast since 24 May 1956 was a Thursday, and Thursday nights usually being reserved for theatre plays on INR.[23]

Following the Eurovision Song Contest, the Belgian songwriters and authors organisation SABAM accused "Messieurs les noyés de la Seine" of plagiarism from the song "Le Noyé assassiné" by Philippe Clay.[10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Roxburgh, Gordon (19 October 2015). "A diamond day for the Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b Jaquin, Patrick (1 December 2004). "Eurovision's Golden Jubilee". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 11 August 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  3. ^ O'Connor, John Kennedy (2010). The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History (2nd ed.). London: Carlton Books. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-1-84732-521-1.
  4. ^ a b c d Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Vol. One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 93–99. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  5. ^ Zwart, Josianne (4 November 2017). "A decade of song: Eurovision winners through the years (1956–1959)". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 4 November 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  6. ^ "'Made in Italy': How Eurovision almost ended up in Venice annually!". European Broadcasting Union. 13 May 2022. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  7. ^ "Exclusively from the archive: The Rules of 1956!". European Broadcasting Union. 18 December 2008. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Reglement du Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson Européenne (version définitive)" [Rules of the Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Competition 1956 (final version)] (PDF) (in French). European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2016.
  9. ^ "Reglement du Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson Européenne (version définitive)" [Rules of the Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Competition 1956 (final version)] (PDF) (in French). European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 June 2016.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Vermeulen, André (2021). Van Canzonissima tot Eurosong: 65 jaar Belgische preselecties voor het Eurovisiesongfestival (in Dutch). Tielt: Kritak. pp. 10–13. ISBN 978-94-0147-609-6. OCLC 1281873016.
  11. ^ a b "TV Tribuun: Eurovisie-Prijs". De TV-kijker (in Dutch). 1 (5): 22. OCLC 649570706.
  12. ^ "Le grand prix Eurovision 1956 de la chanson Européenne". Micro magazine (in French). Vol. 12, no. 577. INR. 29 April 1956. p. 43. OCLC 1400213208.
  13. ^ "Une initiative de la télévision: Le Grand Prix de la chanson européenne". Le Soir (in French). Vol. 70, no. 42. 12 February 1956. p. 6. OCLC 1367282457. Retrieved 5 September 2024 – via Royal Library of Belgium.
  14. ^ Grassl, Andreas (October 2024). "Neues von gestern: Vorentscheidungen 1956". Euro-Voice (in German) (67): 92. OCLC 1190215751.
  15. ^ a b c Hendrickx, Jonathan; van Biesen, Jasper (2021). 65 jaar België op het Songfestival (in Dutch). Mechelen: Baeckens. p. 14. ISBN 978-90-5924-939-4. OCLC 1256401439.
  16. ^ "Télévision". La Libre Belgique (in French). 15 April 1956. p. 8. OCLC 1367285894.
  17. ^ "Concours de la Chanson Européenne". Micro magazine (in French). Vol. 12, no. 578. INR. 6 May 1956. p. 2. OCLC 1400213208.
  18. ^ a b "Le Grand Prix Eurovision 1956 de la Chanson européenne". Micro magazine (in French). Vol. 12, no. 575. INR. 15 April 1956. p. 10. OCLC 1400213208.
  19. ^ a b "INR: Émissions françaises de télévision". Micro magazine (in French). Vol. 12, no. 580. INR. 20 May 1956. p. 42. OCLC 1400213208.
  20. ^ "Lugano 1956 – Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 29 May 2022.
  21. ^ "INR: Émissions françaises de télévision". Micro magazine (in French). Vol. 13, no. 621. INR. 3 March 1957. p. 42. OCLC 1400213208.
  22. ^ "Wegwijs in de Aether". Limburgsch Dagblad (in Dutch). 23 May 1956. p. 9. Archived from the original on 11 August 2022. Retrieved 30 May 2022.
  23. ^ a b Grassl, Andreas (October 2024). "Der erste Song Contest 1956". Euro-Voice (67): 100. OCLC 1190215751.
  24. ^ "Binnen- en buitenlandse televisie programma's van 20 tot 26 Mei 1956". De radio- en televisieweek (in Dutch). Vol. 12, no. 21. NIR. 20–26 May 1956. p. 19. OCLC 1399842623.
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