In just over a month’s time, Belgium will choose their entry for Eurovision 2023. To tease us ahead of the 14 January national final, broadcaster VRT has now revealed the song titles of the 14 entries competing at Eurosong 2023, as well as releasing snippets of each song.
Eurosong 2023 will see seven acts perform two songs each, so that’s 14 snippets in total to have a listen to.
Eurosong 2023 song titles
- Ameerah – “The Carnival”, “Armageddon”
- Chérine – “Ca m’ennuie pas”, “Mon étoile”
- gala dragot – “emotion ollie”, “t‘inquiète”
- Gustaph – “Because of You”, “The Nail”
- Hunter Falls – “Home”, “Ooh La La”
- Loredana – “I Dream in Colours”, “You Lift Me Up”
- The Starlings – “Oceanside”, “Rollercoaster”
You can listen to the song snippets on VRT’s website.
Peter Van de Veire, host of Eurosong 2023, says the standard of the selection is of Olympic proportions:
“There are 14 excellent pop songs on the table, so the goal of the preselection has already been achieved. The level is Olympic high. And I have already experienced some Eurovision Song Contests and pre-selections at home and abroad.”
However, Van de Verie also believes there is something missing from the national final. Since this year’s Belgian entry is being selected by Flemish broadcaster VRT, the host believes it would have been good to have a song in Flemish/Dutch competing:
“They are all foreign-language songs, in French and English. I think it’s a bit of a shame that there isn’t a single Dutch-language song, because there was this momentum for the year.”
About Eurosong 2023
The live grand final of Eurosong 2023 is scheduled for 14 January. It will be held in Brussels at Palais 12. The result will be determined by a professional jury and by the public who will vote from home.
From 9 January, VRT will broadcast a series of introduction shows, where the pre-recorded performances seen in the snippets will be revealed in full.
Belgium returns to its national selection, Eurosong, after a seven-year gap. The last Eurosong was held in 2016 and resulted in Laura Tesoro representing the country at Eurovision. Ever since then, Belgium has chosen their Eurovision songs through an internal selection. The return to a selection show has nothing to do with Belgium’s recent results, according to host Peter Van de Veire. He’s said it would have returned even if they had qualified for the final every single year.
What do you make of the Eurosong 2023 snippet? Which one is standing out to you from first listen? Let us know in the comments below.
That was uh… underwhelming lmao. The only artists who have decent songs for me are Gustaph and Gala Dragot
that was the most unnecessarily way of presenting songs, those song were definitely written and produced by someone stuck in early 2000’s. It was torture as no second passed without me cringing..
It’s a very weak selection if I’m being completely honest. Belgium will struggle to qualify for the final in 2023.
What happened Belgium?!? I have usually loved all of Belgium’s entries since 2015 but all of these are so generic. They are all going to struggle to qualify with the new voting system.
You have heard a 10 second snippet and you think they will struggle. I have heard the full songs and I am sure that Belgium is back into the top 5;
My opinion of the entries based on the snippets: some of the songs got me intrigued, others not at all. I liked 3 artists and their songs (based on the snippets): 1. The Starlings – better song: “Oceanside” 2. Ameerah – better song: “The Carnival” 3. Chérine – can’t decide which song is better (at the moment) Others didn’t spark my interest. All this is of course based just on the snippets, and all can change when we hear the songs in full. (And also when we see the live shows.) And before that, I don’t want to compare the… Read more »
Opinion during the snippet phase: Not going to lie, I expected more from The Starlings. Kind of underwhelmed. For me, either Ameerah, Chérine or Hunter Falls should win.
Hi, i do not want to rule any of the songs out yet. There is some really good quality present. Based only on the snippets I would send Chérine ( if it was up to me ). However i think that the snippets are cut in such a way so to misleed us, especially with Gala. If you would listen to her song “contagious” you ‘d know that her songs will be more than the monotone snippets we have heard so far… yet again that can be said for all the others too. Since probably only the ( Flemish )… Read more »
It’s not easy to judge based on snippets alone, but they’re asking us to do so, thus I will. Of course, as I can change my mind with full versions, it can happen more easily with snippets. Both of Ameerah’s songs feel promising. I like carnival-themed entries when done right. Armageddon could have an interesting structure. Both of Cherine’s entries are pleasant too. On the first recap, I was leaning towards Mon etoile, but now I’m feeling stronger towards Ca m’ennuie pas. Gala’s entries are the most similar between each other than any of the other pairs, and the judgement… Read more »
Oh let me tell ya. For those who are familiar with the Kpop group Itzy. We know how to judge a song based on the snippet… We are talking about SNEAKERS’s snippet. The whole fandom was let down in seconds after hearing the snippet. My point is snippets are crucial they are supposed to include the best part of the song yet not the signature mark of it (chorus / drop in pop / EDM music) which helps getting momentum and more sales during the release day / week. So based on the snippet. The songs I would care the… Read more »
It’s always tricky to judge from snippets, but The Starlings’ “Oceanside” and Chérine’s “Ca m’ennuie pas” sound pleasant, more to the Danish side of Eurovision entries that I would expect from Belgium though.
I guess Gala Dragot will be a divisive contestant, but I really dig her vibe and I’ll probably end up rooting for her to win Eurosong. And you know what? I could see she getting a top 10 in my ranking, depending on how the year will shape up.
That’s funny because I’m not actually that keen on either of Gala Dragot’s songs, at least as snippets. Perhaps the full versions might warm me up more, but The Starlings’ “Oceanside” and Chérine’s “Ca m’ennuie pas“ are actually my favorite songs from this selection. Isn’t it great to have a diversity of opinions?
Gala’s sound is very specific I suppose. It’s indie with dark and sultry tones, so it’s not for every taste, for sure. But the songs you like (and I kinda do too, I just expect something darker from Belgium) are perfectly fine and could be very endearing with the right performance.
I feel like Belgium has sent quite a few dark moody songs for a while now, and I think it would be better for them to choose a different direction for 2023, hence my liking for Oceanside and Ca m’ennuie pas.
All this hype around Starlings for this? Damn
Their songs sound like an AI-generated version of every Ed Sheeran song ever.
They have indeed way better songs..So I’m disappointed too
Total agree with William’s commentary. Ameerah is really good. Either song is good to go.
It’s not all bad here; I find it very hard to judge these small snippets and of course this setting doesn’t give us many clues on what it’s actually going to look like on a big stage. Gala Dragot does give me the most special vibes; that could actually work out really nice, and Belgium has a good tradition of this kind of dark and slightly alternative music. I quite liked what I heard in “Ça ménnuie pas” by Chérine and “Oceanside” by The Starlings too. Hunter Falls’s voice sounds good too. Otherwise, there’s nothing that really grabs my attention… Read more »
these aren’t too bad if we compare them to the last time belgium had a nf (2016). nothing outstanding there, but still. i liked cherine and the starlings’ first songs.
Quite a disappointing selection from Belgium, can’t see any of these songs winning Eurovision or even performing in the final of Eurovision.
I agree with you that we’re probably not gonna see Belgium win eurovision with any of these songs, but I’ll reserve my judgment if any of them are good enough to qualify once the full versions come out.
Gala is going to win it all.
I think Gal Dragot and Cherine (or at least her first song) have some potential here. I kinda have a soft spot for Armageddon by Ameerah
Okay, we’ve got some snippets out. I’d like to hear the songs in full to make a true judgment, but from what I’ve heard in the snippets, it seems like a decent-to-good selection and some songs sound promising. However, I don’t think we’re gonna get the Eurovision 2023 winner from Belgium and considering that the juries are dumped from the semi finals, Belgium could struggle to qualify even if they pick the best song. Of course, this is only the third national final to reveal their songs (even if it’s only snippets), so how Belgium will stack up will depend… Read more »
I would pick the same songs, but even then only Oceanside, Ooh la la and The Carnival sound promising enough that I’m interested in full version of them.
I think they could easily drop one song from each artists – most of them sound like they had one and then quickly made another song just to have two. Still not a great selection, but they’re are 3 that sound promising.
Which three songs sound promising to you? I agree, we don’t need two songs per artist–one would have been fine. I put out my favorite for each artist at the top of this page.
Its a good selection, not incredible selection but its great (its snippets so I waiting the whole songs) but I love :
. The 2 songs of The Starlings
. “Home” by Hunter Falls
. “Mon étoile” by Chérine
. “T’inquiète” by Gala Dragot
. “You Lift Me Up” by Loredana
But The Starlings, Gala Dragot & Loredana are very good !
Ameerah’s Armageddon is probably the most credible song here.
The rest of the songs are incredibly basic and sound like they belong in the 2010s, I didn’t expect any less from Belgium.
Absolutely don’t agree with lots of comments. This NF is not great but some snippets show great potential. 2-3 snippets give me top15-top10 vibes.
But hey, it’s Belgium and fandom doesn’t really like the country.
But without the juries in the semi finals, Belgium could still struggle to qualify even if they pick the best song of this selection.
Not necessarily. Both the juries and the public have put Belgium in their top-10. In ’18 en ’21 only the juries had Belgium in their top-10 in the semis.(Hooverphonic got the eleventh spot.) In ’17 Blanche made it to the final thanks to the voters only. In ’15, ’16 and ’22 both the voters and the juries were keen on the Belgian entries putting them in their top-10. Apart from the Netherlands Belgium doesn’t have guaranteed allies. So it all comes down to the songs. As a Belgian I’m very pleased with the selected artists and songs. I think Ameerah… Read more »
Fair Point, and you’re right, Belgium can qualify with televoters But That is if the song is a real stand out or resonates something with the viewers. As much as I find promise in some of the snippets, I’m holding reservation about whether any of these songs Eurosong 2023 can qualify Until the full versions are out and compare them to other songs that either get selected for eurovision or are competing to represent at Eurovision in another national finals. It is true that Belgium definitely struggled during the hundred percent Televote era in the 2000s, but as you posted… Read more »
Very few songs here that I would call high quality but that’s not going to stop me from loving like 4 or 5 of these completely cheap bops.
I will add that my favourite is Cherine and reminds me of Pandora x Teflon Brothers from Finland a couple years ago.
Yeah, that’s exactly what that song reminded me of.
none of these songs are “high quality”, not here and not in most other eurovision selections, let’s be real haha
I like rollercoaster from the starlings and both songs of Chérine the most here.
Gala Dragot can come really far in the competition. Both her songs sound very interesting and her voice is amazing
This is very disappointing.
I don’t think that even one song is competitive enough for eurovision.
And my country is saying they want to win Eurovision like how… It makes me mad how we can send so many good artists who actually wanted to go internally now they switched to a national final flanders never finished top 5 EVER because they don’t know what the heck they are doing For example if you put the radio on in flanders you hear so many pop dutch songs like in a big amount of proportion but no not a single dutch song not that’s what i’m asking for but weird that there are french songs in it and… Read more »
Did you hear Peter van de Veire in VRT nieuws laat: ” We have some damn good songs” …Like… really?
After listening to the snips I like Gala Dragot with the song Armageddon most also her other song is o.k. The other songs means nothing to me.
Armageddon is sung by Ameerah
You are right, I mean Ameerah
Looks like Belgium is suffering from whatever was afflicting Germany last year. Everything is nice enough, but nothing to really get a crowd going out to vote. It’s possible that when we get the full versions, some of these songs will build to something, but the snippets we got were all quite low key.
There’s quite a lot of trash here – but trash that I can fully enjoy!
Trash is too harsh a word to describe these songs, even if you enjoy it. I think they are good at best and promising based on some of the snippets, but I don’t hear a Eurovision winner in Belgium. That could change once the full songs are released, but I don’t know when that will happen.
I don’t think all of them are trash – but some of them have a cliche Eurovision feel from 10-15 years ago (which I struggle to dislike!)
I think “guilty pleasure” sounds more apt.
They would have been better off just internally selecting Gala Dragot, hers are the only ones that seemed interesting. This is exactly why the Belgians don’t usually bother hosting NFs.
She is clearly the best option in this weak preselection. Almost the same level just like usually in Denmark and Germany. The Starlings could sound very similar to the couple from the Netherlands.
After listening to the snippets my favourites are Gala (both songs sound absolutely amazing), The Starlings (Oceanside is quality pop and Rollercoaster sounds like an Ed Sheeran song), Chérine (with Ça m’ennuie pas) and Ameerah (with The Carnival)
Yeah, I thought it’s cover of I see fire when I heard guitar
Yes that’s exactly what it sounded like!
Yes, it’s disappointing that -despite being a national final held by the flemish broadcaster- there are songs in english and french, yet not a single one in flemish…
Also, just for you to know. Last year, Brequette entered the BenidormFest selection process with a song called “Armageddon”. Interestingly, she just missed out on a few spots to be a participant; and that song was never published.
Do you think Ameerah’s “Armageddon” is the same song? Or could it be just a mere coincidence?
Ameerah cowrote this “Armageddon” song, so I highly doubt it is Brequette’s song.
Oh, okay. I didn’t know that
According the rules don´t RTE allow songs entirely in English for Benidorm
TVE of course, not RTE
Yes, but that doesn’t change anything, honestly. Cause a song can be 100% in english initially, and then the artist can translate it or add lyrics in spanish to follow the rules. In fact, that’s what Xeinn did last year, for example (“Eco” was written entirely in English at the beginning)
Really? How did you know that?
He said it himself in a couple of interviews and there are articles -which back in the day, when talking about Xeinn and his entry- expressed that the song was originally written in english. It was composed by Thomas G:son, Jimmy Jansson, Marcus Winther and Carlos Marco. The latter -being the only spanish person in the group- was also in charge of the translation to spanish. Anyways, I think there’ve been more cases of songs in spanish national selections that were composed by an international team in english, and then were translated to spanish (entirely or partly) to conform to… Read more »
Hooverphonic has to come back. It’s been the best of Belgium in years
I’m digging “Armageddon” and “Ca m’ennuie pas.” Kinda hard to tell in 20 seconds (Gala especially needs more time to sell me). Should be a decent pick if not at the level of the glorious mid-2010s.
“Ca m’ennuie pas” kinda gives me Laura Branigan vibes. I haven’t dug too deep into what Eurovision sounded like in the 80s but I could imagine it sounding like that. The good kind of cheesy throwback.
I second some of the opinions below: Gala Dragot or Starlings. The rest will not even get close to qualifying.
After listening to the snippets, I didnt mind Mon Étoile or either of Gala’s songs. I’m hoping whoever wrote the descriptions for these songs was being ironic because the overall quality isn’t great. Interested to see what some of these are like in full, hopefully one of them will really stand out.
Am I the only one who started humming “I see fire” by Ed Sheeran while listening to the “rollercoaster”?
Well I guess you just need 1 good song. I did enjoy the trip down memory lane with most of these.
I would vote for Gala Dragot just by listening these snippets, sounds great!
So dark and intimate!
Good luck to all the contestants!
Fascinating. I don’t like any of them. Melfest dumped a lot of rejects this year.
I don’t think there’s a eurovision winner here, but I don’t think it’s all bad based on the snippets. A lot of them sound promising to me And I look forward to hear the full versions when they come out later. I hope before the live show on January 14.
Kate Ryan slammed Laura Tesoro, then had to apologize after her good result. Don’t be Kate Ryan.
It should be the other way around surely?
Melfest didn’t reject anything, they just threw out a random number to hide the fact that there’s an incrowd in Sweden
Hard to judge from such short snippets, but Chérine, Gala and The Starlings caught my attention the most. Also I can see Hunter pull a Laura 2016 with a disco bop if the staging is good. A lot of the songs sound unfinished though, and I can’t understand why not have just one song for every contestant.
Those snippets have been recorded during a live rehearsal, of course they don’t sound finished. But a lot of people will be impressed when they hear the full songs live.
Gustaph – “Because of You” is quite interesting. Looking forward for the full song release!
The carnival. Home, Rollercoaster, emotion ollie” or Mon étoile, the decision after all songs:)
The Starlings or Gala Dragot. I also kinda liked Ameerah’s The Carnival, but it’s not as good as the song (snippets) of the other 2 acts. I have to listen to them to their full length for my final decision (especially Dragot’s) but for now, my favourite snippet is Rollercoaster by The Starlings
I feel like Carnival could have great staging
The one that most impressed me was Cherine, liking her voice.
Wait until you hear the full song and what she will do with her voice.
I guess is between Gala Dragot (with the perfect name to make a career) and The Statlings
I think of the snippets, I’d go with Ca M’ennuie Pas the most. Belgium hasn’t sent something in French in a long time, and this would be an interesting one, I think
It’s sometimes hard to judge when it’s just snippets, but I admit it did grip me the most. It Would be nice to have Belgium sent something in one of their national languages again, although it would be ironic to send a French language song when the Dutch language broadcaster is organizing the Eurovision entry.
Wait until you hear the full songs. For me Gala stands out, but Chèrine is also doing something impressive.
It’s going to be between Between Gala Dragot and The Starlings if you ask me. I really enjoyed all 4 songs by these artists.
Others did not touch me in any way.
Just heard the snippets…Van de Veire in the Belgian press “Belgium wants to win the song contest”…Ain’t gonna happen… Not with what i’ve heard….
you only heard a snipped. And I am blown away by Gala. I doubt that other countries will reach that level. She screams winner 2023
Gala by far
Really?
Yes really
Neither of her songs really impressed me to be honest, although they are not bad. Maybe I need to listen to the full songs to really feel them, but they’re not doing it for me
I take it you’re not impressed with Belgium?
It were live snippets recorded from a rehearsal. Wait until you hear the full songs, they will change your mind.