Eliot Vassamillet, Belgium’s representative for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, has spent the last few weeks promoting his entry “Wake Up”. So far, he has performed at pre-parties in both London and Amsterdam, and is soon to perform at Spain’s pre-party in Madrid this evening. Adding to this list, Eliot gave his first televised performance of Wake Up on The Voice Belgique, where he was first discovered by his eventual songwriter. The performance features two drummers and hints at what we can expect from his Tel Aviv staging.
Having been internally-selected as Belgium’s representative for Eurovision 2019, fans hadn’t got the chance to see him perform the track live. This have changed over the past weeks, as Eliot has been promoting “Wake Up” in Amsterdam, Madrid and London at their respective pre-parties.
But the promo hasn’t stopped there! This week, Eliot returned to the stage of The Voice Belgique to perform the song. He had previously competed in the seventh series of the show last year, which is currently airing its eight series. In an interview with the writer and composer of Wake Up, Pierre Dumoulin, he revealed that he first discovered Eliot having seen him perform on the show.
According to Songfestival.be, the staging seen in this performance is a good indicator of what to expect from Eliot’s Tel Aviv staging. The performance on The Voice Belgique featured two dancers who drum on stage as Eliot performs. According to the Belgian site, these dancers, plus two backing singers, will form Eliot’s staging team in Tel Aviv. Both backing singers are fellow alumni of The Voice Belgique; Renato Bennardo competed in series one of the show and Julien Michel competed in the sixth series of the show.
You can watch the performance below:
Who is Eliot?
A relative newcomer to the Belgian music scene; 18-year-old Eliot competed in The Voice Belgique in 2018. At his first blind audition, Eliot impressed his coach Slimane Nebchi by the power, ease and sensitivity of his performance. Later he was noticed by songwriter and composer Pierre Dumoulin.
The moment I saw Eliot’s blind audition, I felt he had that little something extra that I look for in an artist, the sensitivity and fragility which are so necessary to convey emotion.
Pierre Dumoulin speaking about discovering Eliot on The Voice Belgique
He impressed with songs such as “High Hopes” and “Mad World”. Now, less than a year later, he will go on to represent his country at the biggest entertainment show in the world. We recently chatted to Eliot about his Eurovision journey in Madrid.
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest
One of the founding countries in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, Belgium has only missed three contests: 1994, 1997 and 2001. Despite this Belgium has only won the contest once, in 1986. Since the introduction of the semi-finals Belgium has struggled to qualify for the final. Belgium failed to reach the final for five consecutive years between 2005 and 2009.
However, in more recent years, their fortunes had changed for the better. They achieved three top ten placements in a row from 2015 to 2017; both Loïc Nottet and Blanche placed fourth in 2015 and 2017, respectively.
Last year the country failed to qualify to the final for the first time in four years. Sennek represented the country in Lisbon with “A Matter of Time” and placed 12th in ‘the semi final of death’. Eliot will be looking to bring Belgium back to the final and the top 10 when performs in the first semi-final in Tel Aviv on May 14th.
What do you make of Wake Up’s potential staging? Will Eliot bring Belgium back to the Grand Final this year? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! We’ll also be posting plenty of content on our YouTube in the run up to Tel Aviv!
