Red Sebastian, Belgium's entry in the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, failed to make it through to the semi-finals on Tuesday evening in Basel, Switzerland.
Seppe Herreman, alias Red Sebastian, performed his song Strobe Lights, a kind of rave anthem celebrating a nightclub where you never know when it's going to close.
Belgium had been among some of the favourite to win this year, with the result proving to be a shock. Every year, French-speaking and Flemish artists take turns to represent Belgium, with this year being Flanders' turn.
Distinguished by his high-pitched falsetto voice, as well as his bright red hair and outfit, he hoped to win over the jury and the audience in the first semi-final. But the Flemish singer left Switzerland empty-handed.
Of the fifteen contestants representing their countries on Tuesday evening, only ten were selected to go through to the final on Saturday evening.
These were favourites KAj from Sweden with their sauna-themed song ‘Bara Bada Bastu’ were chosen, along with Kyle Alessandro for Norway (Lighter), Shkodra Elektronike for Albania (Zjerm), VÆB for Iceland (RÓA) and Claude for the Netherlands (C'est La Vie).
Others who failed to qualify included Slovenia's Klemen (How Much Time Do We Have Left), Azerbaijan's Mamagama (Run With U), Croatia's Marko Bošnjak (Poison Cake) and Cyprus' Theo Evan (Shh).
The second semi-final, featuring Australia, Montenegro, Ireland, Latvia, Armenia, Austria, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Georgia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Israel, Serbia and Finland, will take place on Thursday.
Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Switzerland have automatically qualified for the final.
