Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000


Belgium was represented by Nathalie Sorce with the song '"Envie de vivre" at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Stockholm on 13 May. Sorce was the winner of the Belgian national final for the contest, held in Brussels on 18 February.
French-language broadcaster RTBF was in charge of the selection of the Belgian entry for the 2000 Contest.

Before Eurovision

Finale Nationale Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 2000

The final was held on 18 February 2000 in Studio 6 of RTBF, hosted by Jean-Pierre Hautier. Ten songs competed, with the winner being chosen by public televoting. For the purposes of announcing the results, the country was split into six regions: Brussels, four in the Francophone provinces and one termed the "Rest of Belgium", covering the five Dutch-speaking provinces where viewing figures were likely to be much lower. Each region announced the actual number of televotes received, rather than converting them into the Eurovision 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10-12 format. Sorce emerged the winner by a margin of over 3,500 votes.

Controversy

Although it did not affect the outcome, there was initially some degree of uncertainty about the disproportionately high number of votes to Sabrina Klinkenberg from the province of Liège, but RTBF subsequently confirmed that it was correct, citing the fact that Klinkenberg was a native of that province as the most probable explanation, and pointing out that Sorce had also received an exceptionally high number of votes from her home province of Hainaut.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Sorce performed 10th in the running order, following Russia and preceding Cyprus. A somewhat shrill and at times off-key vocal performance, combined with a much-criticised choice of outfit, contributed towards an ignominious result, with only 2 points received and a last place finish of the 24 entrants, the eighth time that Belgium had finished at the foot of the Eurovision scoreboard. The 12 points from the Belgian televote were awarded to Latvia.

Points awarded by Belgium

Points awarded to Belgium