National Final Throwback: Roberto Bellarosa – Reste Toi

For today’s National Final Throwback, we’re heading back to 2013, where Belgium had internally selected the young star Roberto Bellarosa to represent the nation. Roberto had featured on the Voice of Belgium and actually won the competition, making him a prime candidate to perform on the Eurovision stage. We know that Love Kills was the song that was chosen by the Belgian jury and public, but what do we think of one of the songs that was left behind in the National Final?

Today’s subject is Reste Toi, the French offering to the three song National Final. If my memory serves me right, this was actually my favourite of the three songs, so it’s interesting to now look back with Roberto’s Eurovision results in mind to see if this song would have done better, or worse at Eurovision. My initial conclusions are that even though I liked this song more, and I still do somewhat like it now, I think Love Kills ended up being the best choice. At the time, I didn’t think any of the three songs were going to be strong enough, but somehow Belgium gained this following come Eurovision time, sending them to 12^th place in the final.

The song itself gains bonus points from the start just for being in a language other than English. I think the lyrics just automatically sound beautiful, but it’s the actual music that’s letting this song down. It’s sufficiently boppy, but fairly basic. The music lacks the depth, but it’s Roberto who brings it alive and almost distracts you from how average the music is. His voice comes alive in this song, especially in that last minute or so.

Overall, I think this is an enjoyable song. In the context of things, I think this would have flopped at Eurovision if it had the chance to be performed. However, I also thought that about Love Kills, so with a revamp, who knows how this could have ended up. It’s not a song I often listen to, but having listened to it once again, I quite enjoyed it. I’m going to give it a 7/10. It’s above average, but not quite spectacular.