Belgium

Blast from the past: Belgium 1980

We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. Today: the 1980 Belgian entry. Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest When Belgium first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, it was decided that Flemish and Walloon TV would submit a song alternately. The 1979 Flemish entry “Hey nana” was a complete failure. It took the last place. However, the 1978 Walloon entry, sung by Jean Vallée, got the best score so far for Belgium: a second place. A difficult task for Walloon TV RTBf to do it as good as they did in 1978. National final After the success of Jean Vallée, one would have expected a huge national preselection. However, “Eliminatoires Belges du Grand Prix de la chanson Europeenne” was nothing of all that. Jean Vallée hosted a small show in which 7 songs were presented; all prerecorded. There was no voting: after the show, RTBf decided that Telex was going to represent Belgium in The Hague. 1.Bruno Brel sings “Etre heureux rien qu’une heure”2.Domani sings “Toute ma vie”3.Lou and the Hollywood Bananas sing “Et puis, et puis…. rien“4.Kevin Morane sings “Ivre de vie“5.Sonia sings “La star maniaque”6.Telex sing “Euro-vision“7.Timothy sings “Parle-moi grand-pêre” Bruno Brel was a cousin of the famous Jacques Brel. Lou Deprijck was a famous singer in Belgium. Plastic Bertrand’s international hit “Ça plane pour moi” was originally sung by Deprijck. Plastic Bertrand denied that until a judge decided in 2010 that Deprijck was proven to be the singer. source: André Vermeulen, “Van Canzonissima tot Eurosong – 65 jaar Belgische preselecties voor het Eurovisie Songfestival”. Telex Telex was a three man band, made up of Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers. The band was formed in 1978; a band combining disco, punk and synthesizer pop to an exclusive sound. Their first album “Looking for Saint-Tropez” was a huge succes. The song “Moskow diskow“. Other hits were “Twist à Saint-Tropez” and “Rock around the clock“. A second album, “Neurovision”, followed around the Eurovision participation. For Telex, Eurovision came at the right moment. Because of the contest, the band was discovered by a larger audience. A few albums followed, but the group split up in 1986. However, there was a return of the trio in 2006. “On the road again” became a hit, but Telex also made their own version of “J’aime la vie“. In 2008, group member Marc Moulin passed away. Euro-vision There are not much songs in the Eurovision Song Contest with the contest itself as a subject. But that is what “Euro-vision” is about. You can find the complete lyrics and translation here. Lacksman, Moulin and Moers co-wrote the song themselves. There was no conductor. As there was no live music, which was not allowed in those days, the members of Telex decided to start the synthesizer-like machine on screen, so that at least the suggestion of live music was made. In the end of the performance, singer Michel Moers made a picture of the audience. Recently, the picture was published in the book “65 jaar België op het songfestival”, by Jasper van Biesen and Jonathan Hendrickx. Results In several interviews, the members of Telex showed their disappointment about the 17th place. Not because they thought it was too low, but because they did not become last. The UK jury gave it 1 point, Greece gave it 3 points but Portugal gave the song its 10 points! Telex blamed Portugal for ruining their chances. photo credits: fotocollectie Anefo

Blast from the past: Luxembourg 1956

We know a lot about Eurovision. That’s why we bring you a blast from the past every now and then. Today: “Les amants de minuit”, de Luxembourgian entry of 1956, sung by Michèle Arnaud. First contestSeven countries decided to join the first ever Eurovision Song Contest: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Because of the small number of countries, every country provided two entries. More countries showed interest, but for several reasons they didn’t participate. Luxembourg was the smallest of the participating countries, represented by broadcaster CLT (Compagnie de la Télévision Luxembourgois). SelectionNothing is known about the national selection in Luxembourg in 1956. However, it is not likely that there was one. Luxembourg only had a national selection on a few occasions in the 70s and the 80s. CLT chose French singer Michèle Arnaud to represent them. Luxembourg was, with Switzerland, one of the two countries that was represented by one artist for both the songs. For the occasion, Simone Laurencin composed one of the songs, with Pierre Lambry writing the lyrics. The other song, composed by Christian Guittreau, was called “Ne crois pas“. Michèle ArnaudMichèle Arnaud was born in Toulon at march 18, 1919. She went to Paris, where she started a singing career in 1952. She started performing in the theatre Milord l’Arsouille. The first successful song she sang was “L’Île Saint-Louis“. After the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, she became the permanent star in Milord l’Arsouille. She was accompanied by Jacques Lassry, who was also her conductor in Eurovision, and… Serge Gainsbourg! In the sixties, Arnaud made her own version of big international hits, like Beatles’ “Yesterday”: “Je croyais Yesterday“.Michèle Arnaud released 11 albums. In the seventies her career ended, her last single being “Cherbourg”. She passed away at march 30, 1998 in the small commune of Maisons-Laffitte. Les amants de minuitThe song was called “Les amants de minuit”, which means “Midnight lovers”. “Midnight lovers by chance meet eachother. And about what will follow, happiness or unfortunate, only the night knows.”, Arnaud sings. The full lyrics can be found here. The results are not known; only the winner, Switzerland, was announced. ChildrenTwo of Michele Arnauds children became artists as well. Daughter Florence Gruère became a photographer. Son Dominique Walter became a singer. He represented France in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Chez nous“.

R.I.P. Claude Lombard

Today, the sad news came to us that Claude Lombard passed away on Monday, september 20th 2021. Claude Lombard represented Belgium in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Quand tu reviendras”. She reached a wonderful 7th place. Claude Lombard was the daughter of Claude Alix, who wrote the 1956 Belgian entry “Le plus beau jour de ma vie”. Lombard was born the 25th of february 1945 in Etterbeek, in the Brussels region. Lombard was quite unkown when she won the Belgian preselection for Eurovision in 1968. The song was sung in French, but a Dutch version, “Eenmaal kom je weer” was also released. Lombard returned to Eurovision in 1973 as a backing vocal, supporting Nicole & Hugo in their song “Baby baby”. She moved to Paris where she wrote the lyrics for a musical. She gave her voice to many cartoons like “Fraggle rock” and the Disney movie “Beauty and the beast”. One of the hightlights in her career was singing as a backing vocal with Charles Aznavour in the eighties. In the nineties she sang with the Pat Benesta Orchestra. Claude Lombard did not disappear from stage. Even last week, she gave a performance in Paris. Lombard was 76 years old. photo credits: Facebook

Jérémie Makiese to represent Belgium

This morning, Belgian French-speaking broadcaster RTBf announced the name of their representant in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest. It’s gonna be Jérémie Makiese. The 20-years old singer is wellknown to the Belgian television viewers. He won the 2021 version of The Voice Belgique, the RTBf-version of ‘The Voice’. In an interview, he said he was interested in the Eurovision Song Contest. That’s where it all started. There is no Belgian song for Eurovision yet. But don’t worry, there is no host city either…. Below you’ll find one of the performances Jérémie did at The Voice Belgique, where he sang Labrinth’s song “Jealous”. photo credits: Facebook

After the Eurovision Fame: Dana International

Dana International won the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham, United Kingdom, representing Israel. Childhood and early Career Dana International (Sharon Cohen) was born in Tel Aviv, Israel as the youngest of three children. Her family is of Yemenite-Jewish descent. Though assigned male at birth, she identified as female from a very young age. She dreamed to become a singer from the age of eight, when she watched Israeli singer Ofra Haza perform her song “Chai” in the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest. Although the family was quite poor, her mother worked to pay for her music lessons, and she stated that her childhood was happy. Dana International took her stage name from a feminized version of a childhood friend Daniel, who died in a car accident. At 18 years of age, Cohen (still legally male at the time) earned a living as a drag queen, parodying many famous female singers. During one of her performances, she was discovered by Offer Nissim, a well-known Israeli DJ, who produced her debut single “Saida Sultana” (“The Great Saida”), a satirical version of Whitney Houston’s song “My Name Is Not Susan”. The song received considerable exposure and helped launch her career as a professional singer. In 1993, Dana International flew to London to continue her transition, and legally changed her name to Sharon Cohen. That same year Sharon released her first album, titled “Danna International”, in Israel. Soon after, the album was also released in several other countries including Greece, Jordan, and Egypt (In Jordan and Egypt the album sold illegally). Sharon’s stage name Dana International comes from the title track of the album, and was originally spelled with two n’s. “Danna International” turned gold in Israel. 2nd Album “Umpatampa” and Eurovision Song Contest In 1994, Dana released her second, Trance-influenced album “Umpatampa”, which built on the success of her debut album and provided further hit singles. The album went platinum in Israel and has sold more than 50,000 copies to date. Because of her popularity and the success of this album, she won the award for Best Female Artist of the Year in Israel. In 1995, Dana attempted to fulfill her childhood dream of performing in the Eurovision Song Contest. She entered the Eurovision qualifying contest Kdam Eurovision in Israel with a song entitled “Layla Tov, Eropa” (“Good Night Europe”) which finished second in the pre-selections, but became another hit single. In 1996, Dana released her third album, “Maganuna”. Although this album was less successful than her previous efforts, it still reached gold in Israel. Dana was chosen to represent Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 in Birmingham with the song “Diva”. Orthodox Jews and others with conservative views were opposed to the choice and attempted to void her participation in the contest. In May 1998, Dana performed “Diva” at the Eurovision final and won the contest with 172 points. She became internationally known, and was interviewed by the big music stations, unfortunately mostly focusing on her life as a transsexual person before winning the contest. Dana’s own words “the message of reconciliation” were; “My victory proves God is on my side. I want to send my critics a message of forgiveness and say to them: try to accept me and the kind of life I lead. I am what I am and this does not mean I don’t believe in God, and I am part of the Jewish Nation.” Dana released “Diva” as a single in Europe and it became a hit, reaching number 11 in the UK charts and the top ten in Sweden, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands. After winning the Eurovision In 1999, Dana released “Woman in Love”, a Barbra Streisand cover. In May 1999, Dana again participated in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem. Dana was a part of the interval act and sang the Stevie Wonder song “Free”. One memorable moment from the event was when she presented the award to the winners of the contest. Whilst she was carrying the heavy trophy, one of the composers of the winning Swedish entry stepped on the long trail of her dress by mistake, and she fell over on stage – in front of a television audience estimated to be a million or more, making it one of the most memorable moments in the 50-year-long history of the contest. She released her next album “Free” in Europe in 1999, which enjoyed moderate success. A few months later Dana moved back to Israel and started to work on different projects. Israeli and Japanese editions of “Free” were released in 2000. That same year, an Israeli documentary film was made about Dana called Lady D. In 2001, after a break, Dana released her seventh album “Yoter Ve Yoter” (More and More). The album put her career in Israel back on track and provided two hits called “Ani Nitzachti” (I Won) and “Achrei HaKol” (After All), which eventually both went gold. Dana was about to sign with a major label, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, for an international recording contract. There were disagreements that led to Sony Music cancelling the deal before it was completed. A few years later, in 2005, Dana participated in the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Copenhagen, after “Diva” was selected as one of fourteen songs considered to be the best Eurovision songs. The song did not make it into the final top five. Dana got the chance to perform both “Diva” and an old Eurovision favourite of hers, Baccara’s 1978 entry “Parlez-Vous Français”. Return to music and Eurovision comeback After a few years away from show business, together with the relaunch of her official website, a first single of the upcoming album was released in March 2007: “HaKol Ze LeTova” (“It’s All For the Best”). The official album, also titled “Hakol Ze Letova,” was released on 15 August 2007. “ On 26 February 2008, Dana gained an additional achievement when the song “Ke’ilu Kan” written and composed by her and performed by Boaz Mauda, was chosen on Kdam to represent Israel at Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia. It came 5th in the semi-final and gained 9th place in the final rank.

Eurovision Universe Summer Party: Kate Ryan – Je t’adore

Kate Ryan (Katrien Verbeeck) from Belgium started her singing carreer in 2001, and found fame with a string of dance hits. These included covers, mostly. In 2006, she represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Athens, Greece. Unfortunately she didn’t make it to the final, but with “Je t’adore” she gave us a great contribution to our summer party.

After the Eurovision Fame – Scott Fitzgerald

We would like to introduce you to our new column: After the Eurovision fame. Today we put Scott Fitzgerald in the spotlight. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Glasgow, Scotland on April 28th, 1948. He began his career on the GTO label, releasing the singles “Judy Played The Jukebox” in 1974 and the title track to glam rock movie “Never Too Young To Rock”in 1975. Fitzgerald’s greatest success was with “If I Had Words”, a duet with Yvonne Keeley and also featuring the St. Thomas More School Choir. It reached number 3 in the UK Singles Chart in 1978, and later went on to be a hit in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, selling more than one million copies. The song also featured in the score for the 1995 film BabeIn 1999, the band Westlife collaborated with the Vard Sisters to record the song. In 1988, he was the first ever artist chosen by telephone vote to sing the UK’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Go”. The song was written and composed by Julie Forsyth, daughter of the entertainer Sir Bruce Forsyth. Forsyth joined Fitzgerald on stage at the contest in Dublin, alongside her husband Dominic Grant (also of Guys ‘n’ Dolls) and Des Dyer (formerly of Jigsaw), to perform backing vocals. Ronnie Hazlehurst conducted the live orchestration. Fitzgerald came second in the contest, by one point, to Switzerland’s winning entry performed by Celine Dion. “Go” reached number 52 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1988. Fitzgerald reunited with Yvonne Keeley in 1992 for the single “United We Stand”, which was released on Red Bullet Records. In 2010 Fitzgerald and Keeley reunited for the final time in an all star version of ”If I had words” for Charity in the Netherlands which featured Gordon, Patricia Paay, Thomas Berge and many others. His album from 1988 ” The wind beneath my wings” has recently attracted interest again, and can be heared on Spotify and is for sale on Amazon. Fitzgerald is married to Shereen Fitzgerald and has three children, Liam Paul Patrick McPhail (passed away in 2020), Neeley Fitzgerald and the singer-songwriter Ki Fitzgerald, an original member of the UK boy band Busted and hit-songwriter to artists around the world. Ki co-wrote Monsters for Saara Aalto’s Finland 2018 entry into Eurovision Song Contest, adding to the family’s Eurovision history. Fitzgerald’s Eurovision experience was allmost forgotten until he decided to embrace his past and performed at a number of party nights in 2021 to celebrate the contest.

UEFA 2020: Quarter finals DAY 1

We are getting closer and closer to the final of UEFA 2020, the European Soccer Championship. Today we will have two quarter finals. The first match will be between Spain and Switzerland. In the sixties, both countries had a song with a double title. In 1965, Conchita Bautista brought the song “Que bueno, que bueno” for Spain. In 1969, Paola Del Medico sang “Bonjour, bonjour” for Switzerland. For the second match, Belgium vs Italy, we look at duos. Belgium sent quite a few, but the most outstanding one was the duo Nicole & Hugo in 1973. Their song was “Baby, baby”, but they are particularly famous for… well have a look yourself. In 1985, Al Bano & Romina Power represented Italy. They had Europe wide fame already when they sang “Magic, oh magic”.

UEFA 2020 eighth finals: DAY 2

We already go to the second day of the eighth finals in the European Soccer Championship. The first match is between Czech Republic and The Netherlands. For this match, we go back to 1968. The Czech Republic did not participate, but one of the most popular Czech singers, Karel Gott, represented Austria. He sang “Tausend Fenster”. The Netherlands were represented by one of their most popular singers: Ronnie Tober. He sang “Morgen”. During and after Eurovision, the two became friends. They remained so until Karel Gott passed away in 2019. The other match of today will be between Belgium and Portugal. We have only one song here that combines both countries. In 2005, Belgium was represented by Nuno Resende. The singer was born in Porto but moved to Belgium with his family when he was 12.

UEFA 2020: DAY 11

It’s day 11 of the European Championship soccer already. Today, no less than four matches will be played. To start with Ukraine against Austria. Both countries once had an act containing a burning fake piano. It was Mélovin who played the piano in his song “Under the ladder” in 2018. He was not the first one to do so. In 2015 The Makemakes had a piano burning during the performance of “I am yours”. The second match is between North Macedonia and the Netherlands. Both countries once had a song about darkness and light. The 2012 North Macedonian entrant Kaliopi sang “Crno i belo”, which means black and white. The Dutch sisters of O’G3NE sang “Lights and shadows” in 2017. Russia will meet Denmark tomorrow. It was back in 2000 when Russia and Denmark ended up in the top, Denmark as the winner, Russia as the number 2. When The Olsen Brothers won with “Fly on the wings of love”, Alsou was the runner up with “Solo”. Another match will be the the one from Finland against Belgium. In 1977, both countries were favorites to win the contest. Both ended up disappointed. Finnish Monica Aspelund and her “Lapponia” ended up in 10th place, while Belgian Dream Express brought their “A million in one, two, three” to a 7th place.