Now Eurovision 2026 is firmly behind us and we\u2019ve had a chance to properly digest the wild ride of Vienna, it\u2019s now time to discuss What Went Wrong. We\u2019ve all had a chance to mull over the results of the contest. The Eurovision 2026 final saw some very dramatic results, but 6 acts in particular had noticeably bad results.<\/p>\n
In our third part Rory, Kittens, and Tom discuss what went wrong with Belgium.<\/p>\n
Who is ESSYLA?<\/p>\n
ESSYLA is the stage name of Alice Van Eesbeeck, a singer born in Perwez in Wallonia, Belgium\u2019s francophone region. Growing up in between Flanders and Wallonia, she showed a musical prowess from a young age, adopting her stage name as she was getting into the music scene. She first gained notoreity in 2020 when she competed in The Voice Belgique, finished second behind J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Makiese, who would represent Belgium in 2022. Since then, she has released solo music, with her debut single being released one year later.<\/p>\n
Her song for Eurovision 2026 \u2013 \u201cDancing on the Ice\u201d \u2013 was written by Alice herself, alongside Barbara Petitjean, Emil Stengele and Nicolas d\u2019Avell.<\/p>\n
What are the issues with the selection?<\/p>\n
Rory: With Belgium\u2019s quirky alternations between VRT and RTBF, I was expecting RTBF to keep things internal as per usual, so RTBF randomly deciding to drop the song at 7am on a Thursday in February was nothing new. However, the lack of transparency in the selection I am a little miffed by. Who else was considered? What genres were played around with? What criteria were RTBF using to pick the act? These are all important questions that internal selections really don\u2019t give us. And I fear that didn\u2019t help when it came to the overall result.<\/p>\n
Kittens: Look I am all for countries going internal and I will very much advocate for countries to go internal. Artists need to have a decent amount of experience to survive Eurovision. That experience needs to be tried and tested. We\u2019ve seen it again and again that new-ish artists cannot hide their lack of experience well. And it does not matter where that experience has come from to an extent, but you cannot send artists who are new and just shove them on a stage and hope for the best. Thankfully, it seems like she\u2019s taken it on the chin (at least outwardly) but it\u2019s easy to see that she may not have been put in an ideal situation. <\/p>\n
Tom: I think Belgium, and this is purely speculation from me personally, are struggling to find musicians willing to go to Eurovision with the current political climate. And I understand why. I don\u2019t blame Essyla for competing by any means, but I also understand why artists aren\u2019t willing to appear currently. Was she particularly bad \u2013 not at all. She has talent, can perform, and this was palatable.\u00a0I think her other music is great. This just was not to my taste compared with other 2026 acts.<\/p>\n
Was the song and act good enough to be in Eurovision?<\/p>\n
Rory: I really liked \u201cDancing on the Ice\u201d and it did rank quite highly on my yearly rankings. To this day, it is a song I have on heavy rotation on my playlist. The song does have a lot of potential and it was a competitive song that, if performed well, could have been a really good track. But Essyla was very clearly a misfit for this song, and that was very clear from the music video. It\u2019s totally fine not to be the best dancer at Eurovision; it\u2019s also totally fine to pick a song that\u2019s better suited to make you more comfortable on stage and just stand there \u2013 just look at Blanche! The song was definitely geared to Eurovision; Essyla could have had more experience before taking on the Contest.<\/p>\n
Kittens: There was so much promise in the video. People were getting behind the song. People Got It. And then it started to fade. The song, in another persons hands, with better staging and dare I say better production, could have made it. All the hope for this making it out of the semi were in the \u2018this needs to serve [the former name of Miriana Conte\u2019s 2025 entry]\u2019 and it simply kinda\u2026failed to do that. In the end there were so many competing girlybops, and it did not have the oomph needed to make it out. This is the kinda song that will just slip away into the annals of Eurovision history, be played on escradio 25 times a year, and every time you\u2019ll go\u2026 What is this? Oh! Yeah, Belgium.<\/p>\n
Tom: I think Essyla is. I\u2019m not so sure about the song. I mean it qualified so what do I know \u2013 but I do not think this song is at all competitive. It feels like an album track or the least impressive song from a musical. Essyla deserved a better track in my opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did the staging compliment the song and stand out?<\/p>\n
Rory: In a word, no. I liked some of the concepts they had on stage, like the fight between the cold and the warmth and the INCREDIBLY LOUD leaf blower that was catapulting the \u201csnow\u201d at Essyla. But for a mid-tempo song that involves dancing, this got lost. Her cursive expressions did little to impress either, and sometimes she did just mumble through entire lines of the song. My thinking is she was getting in her head trying to hit her marks, which then meant she was not present and not feeling fluid, which made it rigid and stood out \u2013 perhaps in a bad way.<\/p>\n
Kittens: It\u2019s just very generic staging, could have been any number of songs from the last 15 years, that didn\u2019t stand out at all. Cute girl sings with dancers. Some nice effects. Given that the song wasn\u2019t anything particularly special, this needed to go further. And I know you\u2019re not meant to take the title of the song literally. But there was surely something right there ready to go that did not get picked up on! That could have been a memorable moment, and a reminder of who to vote for in the end!<\/p>\n
Tom: I mean\u2026 there were some beautiful camera shots. And I didn\u2019t hate it. But I absolutely hated the fact you could so clearly hear the \u201csnow\u201d machine activate. I understand that\u2019s a risk with live production and staging, but it really took me out of the moment. I also didn\u2019t love the outfit choices. Overall it was okay.<\/p>\n
Should this song have qualified from this year\u2019s semifinals?<\/p>\n
Rory: This qualifying was the shock qualifier I was pleasantly surprised with. Like I said, I really like this song, and in the studio, this is a really strong track! I understand it barely scraped through, but even I was thinking a song like Montenegro would have made it through. Songwise, it\u2019s definitely deserved, but I would totally thrown out that staging concept and gone for something different by the time we got to the final.<\/p>\n
Kittens: I think it was very lucky for them that this was in SF1 because I simply don\u2019t think it would have made it through SF2. I do think this was always borderline to me \u2013 but that does mean of course that it could have made it through and it did. I just don\u2019t think there was enough that was remarkable about it to make it a 100% sure qualifier.<\/p>\n
Tom: I personally would have placed Montenegro or Georgia above this, but I understand how and why it qualified. Personal opinion doesn\u2019t matter, it did qualify. But I\u2019m not sure it would have made it through from semifinal 2 at all easily.\u00a0I think Belgium are lucky to have been in semifinal 1.<\/p>\n
What are our outlooks for future contests?<\/p>\n
Rory: Overall, what RTBF \u2013 and VRT \u2013 need to do is to find someone who knows their own craft and find a song they themselves are happy to sing and dance in front of millions of people. I understand Essyla wrote this song. I understand she wanted to challenge herself and work on her choreo and vocals. But Eurovision isn\u2019t really the place to do that. Both broadcasters want a good result, and I think finding someone with a cohesive package that fits their comfort \u2013 and they feel happy doing the moves they rehearsed on stage is a recipe that you can\u2019t really go wrong with.<\/p>\n
Kittens: I really do think Belgium need to look carefully into what they want to do at the contest. They\u2019ve struggled quite badly in recent years (not you Gustaph my king) and it just needs so much more of a push \u2013 if indeed, they decide to stay in. <\/p>\n
Tom: I\u2019m not sure on this one. I\u2019ve liked so many recent acts from Belgium that haven\u2019t qualified more than I enjoyed Essyla\u2019s song, so maybe I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m talking about. I\u2019d like to see Mentissa go to ESC for Belgium one day. I always like the Belgium NF on the years that they do it. But I also respect that a lot of the population of the country wishes that the broadcaster would withdraw from the Contest in the current climate. So who knows what is to come in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Watch the accompanying discussion video here:<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s Eurovision Journey<\/p>\n
Belgium was one of the debutant countries at the beginning of the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1956. For the first edition, countries could submit two songs, and for Belgium that year, \u2018Messieurs les noy\u00e8s de la Seine\u2019 by Fud Leclerc and \u2018Le plus beau jour de ma vie\u2019 by Mony Marc represented the nation. To this day we do not know the final results of Eurovision 1956. Belgium have taken part in 64 Eurovision Song Contests; however, they have only ever won once: in 1986 with Sandra Kim and the song \u2018J\u2019amie la vie\u2019, scoring 176 points.<\/p>\n
Belgium chose ESSYLA to represent the nation with \u201cDancing on the Ice\u201d in 2026. Competing in the first semi-final, Belgium qualified for the final, placing 21st and earning a total of 36 points, all of which came from the professional jury.<\/p>\n
What do think about our thoughts? Do you think Belgium could have done better? Let us know in the comments or on social media! Be sure to follow \u2018That Eurovision Site\u2019 on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>,\u00a0TikTok<\/a>,\u00a0Threads\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>\u00a0as we prepare for Eurovision 2027!<\/p>\n Source: That Eurovision Site<\/p>\n Image Credit: Alma Bengtsson \/ EBU<\/p>\n \t\tPost navigation<\/p>\n \t