Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012
Belgium participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Would You?" written by Nina Sampermans, Jean Bosco Safari and Walter Mannaerts. The song was performed by Iris, who was internally selected by the Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT) in November 2011 to represent the nation at the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song was selected through the national final Eurosong 2012: Een song voor Iris, which was organised by VRT and featured two songs. In the final on 17 March 2012, "Would You?" was selected as the winning song after gaining 53% of the public televote. Belgium was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 22 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 8, "Would You?" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Belgium placed seventeenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 16 points. Background Prior to the 2012 contest, Belgium had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-three times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . Since then, the country has won the contest on one occasion in with the song "J'aime la vie" performed by Sandra Kim. Following the introduction of semi-finals for , Belgium had been featured in only two finals. In 2011, Witloof Bay represented the country with the song "With Love Baby", placing eleventh in the second semi-final and failing to advance to the final. The Belgian broadcaster for the 2012 contest, who broadcasts the event in Belgium and organises the selection process for its entry, was Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT). The Belgian participation in the contest alternates between two broadcasters: the Flemish VRT and the Walloon Radio Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF). Both broadcasters have selected the Belgian entry using national finals and internal selections in the past. In 2010, VRT internally selected the Belgian entry, while in 2011, RTBF organised a national final in order to select the entry that would represent the nation. On 5 September 2011, VRT confirmed Belgium's participation in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, internally selecting the artist while holding the national final Eurosong to select the song. Before Eurovision Artist selection On 18 November 2011, VRT announced that they had internally selected Laura van den Bruel (Iris) to represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. On 29 February 2012, the broadcaster revealed that the song Iris would perform at the contest would be selected through a two-song national selection. Eurosong 2012: Een song voor Iris A submission period was opened on 19 December 2011 for songwriters to submit their songs until 16 January 2012. Two songs were selected for the national final from 270 received during the submission period and were announced on 16 March 2012. The final took place on 17 March 2012 at the Het Omroepcentrum in