Belgium’s 2026 entry is ESSYLA with ‘Dancing on the Ice’, revealed internally by RTBF in February. It feels like a fairly deliberate piece of contemporary Eurovision pop: sleek, electronic, modern without trying too hard to prove it knows what year it is. After a couple of less rewarding results, Belgium appears to be nudging back towards the lane that served it rather well a few years back, when sending something stylish and faintly aloof was often enough to make people pay attention.
The song itself has an insistent electronic pulse and a chorus that doesn’t so much arrive as keep reintroducing itself until you’ve absorbed it by force. It’s very repetitive, though in this case that feels largely intentional rather than lazy. ESSYLA’s studio cut is polished and radio-friendly, with enough shape to suggest real staging potential. The official delegation details currently list four dancers. I suspect the live performance will aim for movement and visual control rather than static mood-lighting and meaningful staring. There’s also a mid-song instrumental shift that adds a slightly broader continental flavour, helping stop the track from feeling too stuck. The risk isn’t the song, really, but the live handling. ESSYLA is still relatively new to a stage this size, and Belgium has a habit of taking a workable idea and asking too much.
ESSYLA, from Perwez in Walloon Brabant, first came to wider notice as a finalist on The Voice Belgique, and this makes her Belgium’s first solo female Eurovision representative of the decade. RTBF has not gone for novelty here. This is a clean, current package aimed at being competitive rather than quirky.
History
Belgium’s had a mixed track record of late. Gustaph’s ‘Because of You’ gave them 7th place in 2023. Mustii failed to qualify in 2024. Red Sebastian finished 14th in his semi in 2025. Before that, there was a stronger run including Loïc Nottet’s 4th place in 2015 and Blanche’s 4th in 2017.
For 2026, this looks like a plausible qualifier and a decent upper-mid-table prospect. ESSYLA though needs to contend with following Israel onto the stage in the first semifinal. If the live vocal holds and the staging doesn’t become overexcited. Juries may appreciate the polish, while televoters should at least find it immediate enough to remember. It’s not a runaway contender. The repetition will test some patience, but Belgium has sent far worse and expected more. This, at least, feels like it knows what it is doing.
7 Points
