Canzonissima was the national final format developed by Flemish broadcaster Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (BRT) which determined the song that would represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963. The competition consisted of nine semi-finals held between October 1962 and February 1963, and a final on 16 February 1963.[2]
Canzonissima 1963 was the first of four series of the show, with seasons in 1966-1967, 1967-1968, and 1970-1971. The 1966-1967 and 1970-1971 editions of the show acted as BRT's national final for the Eurovision Song Contest in their respective years. The Canzonissima format would also inspire the format for Eurosong 1975, the first edition of Eurosong – the long-term Flemish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.[2]
Format
Canzonissima1963 consisted of nine semi-finals and final. Each semi-final consisted of twelve songs which would be scored by a jury panel and through audience voting. The top three songs from each semi-final qualified to the next semi-final, whilst the remaining songs would be eliminated and be replaced with new songs in the next semi-final. For a song to qualify to the final, it would have to finish in the top three in three consecutive semi-finals.[2]
Since songs introduced in semi-finals 8 and 9 could not participate in three semi-finals, the rules for qualification were changed in semi-final 9. Instead, songs would have to get more than the average number of points that every song that qualified to the final got in their last semi-final.[2]
BRT opened submission periods for interested composers for all nine semi-finals separately.[3] The submission deadline for each semi-final was 21 days prior to the airing of that semi-final.[3] All submissions had to be anonymous (the names of the songwriter(s) of an entry were only revealed after a song was chosent to compete), include the lyrics and at least a piano score of the song, not have been published beforehand, and had to last no longer than 3½ minutes.[3] A total of 88 songs were chosen to compete in Canzonissima1963.[2]
The songwriter(s) of a song were allowed to pick which of the twelve artists they would like to perform their song.[3] However, BRT did not always follow the songwriter(s) recommendation.[2][3] If a songwriter did not specify an artist then the same jury that chose the competing entries would select an artist for them.[3]
Competing entries and respective performers (in the semi-finals)[2]
Voting in the semi-finals was done by an applause meter and a 5-member jury panel. The applause meter gave out 1 to 50 points depending on how loud the applause from the audience was, but since it only counted noise, boos were also counted by the applause meter. The 5-member jury panel consisted of Pieter Leemans, Jef Claessen, Frank Engelen [nl], Gaston Nuyts [nl], and Gerd Mertens, who would each give out 1 to 10 points to every song.[2]
After semi-final 3, "Ode aan de zon" was disqualified as it was released by the composer Henk van Montfoort. Because of this, the 4th places of semi-final 2 and semi-final 3 were added to semi-final 4, causing it to have 14 songs instead of 12.[2]
After semi-final 4, "Kleine blauwe zwaluw" was disqualified as Bob Benny had published the song. Instead, "Zo mooi" by Jo Leemans qualified for the next semi-final.[2]
To qualify from the ninth semi-final, songs had to receive at least 73 points, the average number of points that every previous song that qualified to the final got in their last semi-final.[2]
Final
The final was held on 16 February at the Amerikaans Theater in Brussels, hosted by Denise Maes and Bob Boon [nl].[1] The winner was chosen by two separate juries. The first jury consisted of 20 professionals, while the second jury consisted of 20 people who were mostly winners of De Muziek Kampioen, a Flemish music quiz show. At the start of the show, the hosts explained that the competition was exclusively to select the song that would represent Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963, and not the artist. However, Jacques Raymond was selected as the performer of "Waarom?" at the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 anyway. Each song was sung twice by two different artists; songs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 were performed by Anita Berry, and song 5 was performed by John De Mol, then every song was performed by the singer who performed it in the semi-finals.[2]
On the night of the final Raymond performed 14th in the running order, following Sweden and preceding Monaco. Voting was by each national jury awarding 5-4-3-2-1 to their top 5 songs, and at the close of the voting "Waarom?" had received 4 points (all from Austria), placing Belgium 10th of the 16 competing entries. The Belgian jury awarded its 5 points to contest winners Denmark.[4]
