BELGIUM 🇧🇪
On 3 November 2014, Belgium’s French-language state broadcaster, Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF), announced Nottet as the Belgian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 to be held in Vienna, Austria.[3][6] On 10 March 2015, “Rhythm Inside”, his entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, was presented (co-written by his Voice mentor). The song went to number one on both the Flanders and Wallonia Ultratop charts. Performing in the first semi-final of the competition, Nottet was successful in progressing to the final, coming second in his semi-final with 149 points. During the Jury Final (following Australia), he could be barely seen on stage due to heavy use of smoke machines and pyrotechnics from the Australian Act. His delegation was rumoured to have lodged a complaint about this, saying that it would affect part of their final score. While they requested to perform again, this was apparently denied, instead telling juries to disregard the smoke. In the Grand Final, the Belgian entry scored a total of 217 points leaving “Rhythm Inside” in fourth position overall, giving Belgium its first top-five placement since 2003.
CROATIA 🇭🇷
Roko Blažević, who won Dora 2019 and represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel has released his first single since Eurovision in May. The song is called “Krila” (Wings), and it has been written by Jacques Houdek (Croatia 2017) and Andrea Cubric, the same duo that created “The Dream”, which Roko performed at this years Eurovision. The main message of the song is about the joy of life, and searching for happiness in small things.
ROMANIA 🇷🇴
In February 2019, Romanian Television (TVR) announced Ester Peony as the Romanian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel, after she won the selection show Selecția Națională with her song “On a Sunday”. The announcement was met with mixed reactions from the public. In 2019, TVR were able to spend significant amounts on their Eurovision entry for the first time; they spent about 100,000 euros on the visual and special effects in the performance. Romania failed to qualify for the Eurovision Grand Final as their second consecutive—and second overall—non-qualification, placing 13th with 71 points. During her Eurovision time, Peony had signed a record deal with Cat Music and is currently working on her debut studio album set to be released later in 2019. She performed at the 2019 Golden Stag Festival.
RUSSIA 🇷🇺
Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lazarev, born 1 April 1983) is a Russian singer, dancer and actor. He is most famous for his singing career when he rose to fame as a member of the group Smash!!. The group broke up in 2006. Since then Lazarev has pursued a solo career. He represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden, and finished in third place, coming first in the televote. He represented Russia again at Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel with the song “Scream”, and similarly finished in third place.
