And here we have her, the first artist revealed to be present at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon next year! And yes, ”her”, because Belgian broadcaster VRT have chosen Laura Groeseneken to represent Belgium at the contest in Portugal!

Tonight, she was announced in the Flemish TV show Van Gils & Gasten where they kept building up the suspense until they revealed it at the very end: Laura started singing on stage and the camera got closer and the lights went on gradually revealing her singing ‘Amar pelos dois’ in a jazzy, English version:

Before the big reveal, eurovision.tv had a little chat with Laura:

Laura Groeseneken was born in 1990 in Leuven and has been involved in several renowned music projects, including several festivals like Rock Werchter (as vocalist for the band Ozark Henry, who she has been part of since 2014) and solo at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the James Bond franchise in 2012. She has also co-written the song ‘Gravity’ for the succesful Belgian band Hooverponic. In daily life however, Laura is Visual Merchandiser at IKEA and is a vocal coach at music center Het Depot in Leuven.

Peter van de Veire, Belgian commentator for the VRT, disclosed on the show that Laura’s rendition of Sheryl Crow’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ at the abovementioned gala, was decisive in selecting her to do Belgium proud next year:

Laura will be using the next months to work on a song, including VRT, to get a song that’s really suits her.

What do you think of VRT’s choice for Laura? Let us know in the comments below!