#Eurosong 06

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 29 - Belle Perez - "El mundo bailando"

Back to Belgium already for a breakout star from a previous Eurosong. In 1999, Belle Perez (real name Maribel Pérez) took part in Eurosong with Hello World and that song endeared her immediately to coders and Belgians. By 2006, she'd already had four studio albums releases, switched to Latino pop often sung in Spanish, and was now hosting a live music show in the Netherlands.

Getting Belle on Eurosong was a statement of intent from VRT. She was a big and popular enough star to get the country pulling for her from the outset. She already had fans outside her native Flanders with hits not only in Belgium, but also the Netherlands, and, oddly, New Zealand and Australia.

She was hoping her 2006 song El mundo bailando (The World is Dancing) would not only get her to Eurovision, but would also break her in the German-speaking part of Europe with planned releases in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The song was composed by Fernando De Meersman, Juan Guerrero and Patrick Renier and is a Latino party song based on a theme of love, love, peace, peace - the most stereotypical of Eurovision subjects - although in 2006 that stereotype was perhaps not quite as strong as it became in the subsequent decade.

Not only has Belle got the voice and looks, she has stage presence expressed with every gesture she makes. I'm not sure about the basic staging she has here - surely just Belle on her own would suffice? Given the theme of 2006 Eurovision - Feel the Rhythm - and the sense that the entire shebang was a party, this song would have been completely perfect for the Athens stage. It's fun, fully danceable and catchy as hell.

It also made its way serenely through the heat (winning it by miles), the semi-final and into the Eurosong '06 final where it was one of the favourites to win. It did well with the juries, being one the three big-scorers with them. It cruised to victory with the Radio station jury, however the televote let Belle down. Whoever was watching and voting didn't appear to want a Spanish language song representing Belgium. Belle finished third.

The consolation was that the single of El mundo bailando topped the Belgian charts for three weeks, spending a total of sixteen weeks on the chart in total. It also went to number seven in the Netherlands. The big breakthrough in German language countries didn't materialise, presumably because she wasn't on stage in Athens.

Given the success of the song, I don't think this would qualify as a disappointment and Belle went onto bigger things. She's still touring and performing with a greatest hits tour on this December (2024). There were five more albums after 2006 as well as a slew of singles coming out almost every year throughout the 2000s and 2010s.

Just to prove her Eurovision credentials, and show just how great she would have been, here she is from 2018 doing a medley of songs that the Gipsy Kings have recorded - kicking off with Nel blu dipinto di blu

[mymodernhippy]

Date: 2017-08-10 19:40:06

Beatbox as an instrument Professional beatboxer and Vocal Artist. Winner of ‘Blue Note Award’ and the ‘BeatBox Special Award’, Belgian and Vice World Champion Beatbox, and soloist at the Royal Academy for Music in Aalborg (Denmark). Jury in 3 World Beatbox Championships and over 30 national Beatbox Championships Teacher of over 800 workshops and lessons (Real Festival, Vocal Jazz Summit, Europa Cantat, London A Cappella Festival, Aarhus Vocal Festival, Stanford University…) Vocal percussionist for Witloof Bay (Eurosong 2011), Bruk Braders, Vox North and Zap Mama. Guest performances for The Real Group, Swingle Singers, Leveleleven, Voces8, Clouseau, Lady Linn… Creating/performing in Theater and Dance shows: Les Daltoniens, Urban Nomads and Shobana Jeyasingh dance company. Band member and creator of ‘Beatoxic’, ‘Bruk Braders’ and ‘Wait A Minute’. Loves Gaming This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Other Recommended 2006 Songs

Some other songs that just failed to make my top 64, starting with Lordi's Finnish rivals in metal - Kilpi with Toinen minä (Another Me).

This was the song of their two that was eliminated in the heats. Their other song came sixth overall in Euroviisut.

Turning to something completely different, some bosa nova with a hint of fado and Natalie Insoandé.

The title is Durmo com pedras na cama (I Sleep with Rocks in My Bed). Ouch. Natalie ended up in fourth place in this year's Festival da Canção.

Moving to Belgium (again, they're in double-figures for 2006 now) and Laura D who's been given the job of reverse parking history.

In an extremely competitive Belgian competition this year, Laura didn't make it out of the heats, finishing in fourth place in the same heat as Kate Ryan.

Lastly there Gunesh in Belarus, a singer who I've think may make it into a future top 64 list.

In 2006 she's trying to connect hearts, but could only connect enough of them to finish fourth in Eurofest 2006.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 40 - Brahim - "P.O.W.E.R."

Brahim Attaeb is another graduate of Idool 2003 alongside Natalia. While Brahaim's musical career hadn't been quite as stellar as Natalia's, he'd still been doing alright for himself since the TV show. He'd had several charting hits, including one number one with his first single, Turn the Music Up, as well as two other top ten hits.

Brahim was a known singer from a VRT show who'd done well. It's surprising that it took until 2006 for him to make it to Eurosong. Maybe things just weren't in place for him to have a go in 2004.

Now that he's finally here, he has a bombastic rapping adventure in stomping and seizing power. Pride, Option, World, Equals, Respect P.O.W.E.R. is a rap delivered over drum and bass lines that in my head a least would be brilliant if delivered by a brass section with parping tubas and a marching band. It's a non-stop two-four thump to get your heart marching towards a just and peaceful state of affairs in the world. Stand-up for yourselves, make your voices heard and respect will be both earned and due.

There's no doubting the commitment to the line by Brahim and his two other collaborators, who I'm assuming are Fred Fraikin and Jeremy Olivier/Style the co-writers and producers of the song, if not, I don't know who the French rapper is. This is the performance from the heats of Eurosong. For the semi-final, he cut the initial prologue and went straight for the drop after the very smallest bit of Spanish guitar strumming. There's a cleaner version of that video on YouTube, but the sound and mix are less to my liking, so I went with this version.

He zoomed through the heat in second place, before only managing to end up fourth in the semi. He'd definitely impressed the juries though as they picked him as their wildcard for the final. There he ended up fourth of the seven songs again. Not bad. He'd be back for another go in two years time, the next time there was a VRT year for Belgium.

Many singles and collaborations followed over the next decade, my favourite of which is his collaboration with Slongs Dievanongs on a cover of the Nicole & Hugo classic Goeiemorgen, morgen

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 53 - Zenna - "Someone Is Calling"

When national finals have open submission processes, non-mainstream record industry songs can and do sneak into the line-up. True one-offs, no recording contract from enthusiastic singers and song-writers who may have stuck some sort of gold.

That's the case with Zenna. I'm not sure if Zenna here refers to the singer (whose name is Magnolia Pinto) or the band, or possibly the team behind it. The song-writing team are Inge Moortgat, Violetta Zimbardi and Sammy Merayah who have no other national final credits at all. The only one of those is moderately well-known is Sammy Merayah, who is a Belgian composer, producer and arranger. He worked a variety of DJs and artists around this time.

Someone Is Calling has perhaps too much emotional weight. It's a song about grief, sung by someone going through bereavement and not yet at the point of being able to let go. Magnolia's wide-eyed almost startled expression betrays not only her nerves, but also her own emotional investment in the song. She has said in the YouTube comments to this video that all she could think of was her own father who had recently died. That and the production team saying things to her as she performed in her earpiece.

Her emotional investment and her own insecurities about performing on this stage in front a nationwide TV audience lead to a song that feels on the edge of disintegrating into tears as she feels held by a missed loved one.

The simplicity of the song and the weight it brought stood out sharply in Eurosong '06. After the televote and all the various jury points were tallied, Zenna finished fifth of the seven songs. It wasn't enough to get them/her to the final.

Magnolia has continued to write and perform her own pieces of music some of which are on her YouTube channel. Her connection with the Earth and nature have led her to create several chants and other pieces of improvised poetry. She now styles herself as a facilitator/faciliatrice and healer using sound and light to do so.

As for the rest of the team? Inge wrote a few other songs for bands in the late 2000s, some of which did make it including a Flemish translated arrangement of Sakis's 2009 Eurovision song This Is Our Night. Sammy continued his work arranging while I can find no other trace of Violetta.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 23 - Kate Ryan - "Je t'adore"

More Belgium. They are having a lot of entries this year. This time it's the actual winner. Kate Ryan, another of the 2006 VRT girlbops and perhaps the one that punctured the girlbop balloon at Eurovision.

Kate (real name Katrien Verbeeck) has been having ever increasing success for the past four years. Singles and an album have hit the charts, not just in Belgium but across Europe. Her breakthrough was a debut cover of Disenchantée, but she followed that up with original compositions and even managed to get into the US Billboard dance chart with a cover of The Promise You Made by Cock Robin. Kate was a solid choice for Belgium. She could sing this material live, she looked good, she was relatively well-known.

Je t'adore is more of the same. It's Europop, filled with energy but at the same time harkening back to Eurovision past. Rather than ethno elements, it substitutes more Western pop and maybe that's where it went wrong. Somehow it doesn't feel hugely fresh. It fits the Eurovision template almost too perfectly.

It's not as if Belgium weren't really going for it here. It does manage to incorporate new staging elements including the illuminated microphone stands used as choreographic elements, that make it stand out from other fare. There's some rare pyro for 2006. Kate dances as she sings, hitting marks in way that most of the other entries don't have to. The routine is complex enough for it to be relatively hard to pull off perfectly.

Then there are the mistakes. Not only the camera cutting mishap, although I don't think there's ever been a Eurovision entry with a mistake originating from the mixing desk that has done well. The routine isn't quite polished enough and those microphone stands look like they're going to topple over in places, the lines they form aren't perfectly rectilinear.

After having won every stage of Eurosong '06 easily, Kate managed to finish only twelfth in the Eurovision semi-final and didn't get through to the Grand Final. It was only seven points off qualification, but that's not enough. It got points from lots of countries, but nothing higher than a seven. There were two many other different exciting things to vote for.

It was still a shock to many, the easy qualifier that failed, and a sign that if you wanted to do well with a girlbop now, it was going to have to be something extra. We'd seen it all before.

The good news is that this was only a minor blip in Kate's career. She went on to release something in the region of thirty singles, seven albums, had huge numbers of top ten songs in the Benelux countries and collaborated with Avicii among others.

One other mention for the song-writers here. Kate contributed alongside Lisa Greene, Niclas Kings and Niklas Bergwall. Lisa has written songs for many major names including Britney Spears, Girls Aloud and Kylie Minogue. Niclas Kings is someone who may come up again later in my 2006 list...

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - The Best National Final

It's a big national final with very few misses. There are more than ten songs from it in my top sixty-four, and I haven't even mentioned yet that is also has two former winners involved in Barbara Dex and Vanessa Chinitor. It generated lots of hits and further advanced careers. VRT's Eurosong '06 is my best national final of the year and consolidates my impression of VRT's ability to organise a high quality, professional, and well-thought through national final.

Having said that they did go very heavy for the girlbops and it's not as if there wasn't competition from elsewhere.

Euroviisut in Finland had a novel approach, giving twelve acts two songs each, ensuring that they all got to the semi-final and had at least two appearances on national television. Being Finland there was more than the average amount of metal and rock, and of course they gave us the legendary Eurovision winners Lordi.

Melodifestivalen is having a strong, almost iconic year too. STV introduced wildcards and got some big names to take part, with huge results. There are some Melfest classics in the running order this year, and Swedish songs also score some high slots in my top sixty-four.

Another notable final is Eirodziesma 2006, with LTV in Latvia getting several good acts and songs together. Poland's Piosenka dla Europy is still very well produced even if the quality of the songs seems to be declining and in Belarus it's the opposite way around. Able to attract some interesting artists and songs, but with the lack of money for production being noticeable.

The national final that never was for Serbia & Montenegro, the one that resulted in the winning act being almost bottled off the stage, did have some very strong entries both in the final and through the two qualify competitions of Beovizija and Montevizija.

There were two song selection finals this year - Greece and Ireland, as well as France having an artist selection final, plus a few other cut back finals as in Ukraine.

Finally, not a national final, but having a weird one was the venerable Festival di Sanremo. There was a new artistic director and presenter in Giorgio Panariello and another new format, splitting the competition into four separate competitions that only came together on the final night. It didn't really work, there weren't huge numbers of quality songs and the winner was almost a novelty song.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 15 - Casa Creola - "Easy esta noche"

This is a bit of an interesting one, again from Belgium. Casa Creola are a group of two people, only one of whom is on stage and both of whom are intriguing.

Up front and singing is Edwige Veermeer in the fourth incarnation of her singing career, although she's primarily a dancer. She got her break in the band Candy in the 1990s, a rotating group of three girls of which Edwige was in the original line-up. They had a couple of initial hits before her turn was over and she left the group.

After a brief time as Miss East Flanders and a finalist in Miss Belgium, she was the face and voice of The Oh!, a group made up of DJs based around the Oh! club in Gavere. Then she had a stint as a solo singer under the name Edvika.

None of these groups seem to have been hugely financially successful, but they did bring her to the attention of songwriter and producer Marc Paelinck. At this point in his career he's written Belgium's 2002 Eurovision entry (Sister by Sergio & the Ladies) and their 2004 entry (1 Life by Xandee) as well as a couple of other national final entries. He is the off stage member of Casa Creola and the writer (along with James Winchester) of Easy esta noche. With that sort of heritage from the past two Eurosongs, hopes must have been high.

It's perhaps not the dirtiest Belgian girl bop of the year, nor even the most Spanish, but it is the most fervently enthusiastic about getting on the dance-floor and partying until everyone runs out of breath and sweat. It's perhaps the purest Eurodance tune of Eurosong '06. There's the endlessly repeating synth hook going round in circles underneath the entire thing. Once it stops, Edwige has to hold tight and go with the relentless pace.

By the end, it's evident that she's flagging, but her breathlessness only adds to the impression that this song and the party it's promoting, are a wild and thrilling rider for everyone to sweatily enjoy. Pure party music and that's all it wants to be.

It didn't do great, finishing sixth of the seven songs in heat 2 and getting eliminated from contention immediately. Overwhelmed by the other girl bops, Marc and Edwige had to accept that this type of song was at least a couple of years out of fashion. Casa Creole released one more single and like all the other bands in Edwige's life, it evaporated.

Marc went on to other things including writing What If We for Chiara and Malta in 2009 as well as Solayah for Alyona Lanskaya and Belarus in 2013. He's written for quite a number of different artists in other national finals too.

For Edwige, this appears to have been the end of her musical road, although she still's a somewhat recognised face in Belgium, albeit one who had not found huge success. She got married the year after this and has since become not only cabin crew for TUI airlines, but also runs a Ghent based taxi company. Yes, really.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 28 - Katerine - "Watch Me Move"

This is another second-time effort from Eurosong '06 for a singer who's had a good few years prior to this. Katerine Avgoustakis is a Greek-Belgian singer who used to be a group called Indiana. They entered Eurosong '02 but got knocked out at the heat stage. In the four years after that, the band broke up and Katerine went solo. She also entered and won the Flemish version of Star Academy. Things were going well.

On the back of her victory, later in 2005, she released her debut single New Day which got to number two in the Belgian UltraTop 50 before going on to be crowned Best New National Artist at the TMF music awards as well as releasing a debut album.

Given all of that, entering Eurosong '06 feels like it was almost a formality, especially given her Greek heritage. It feels as if VRT must have been pulling for her to do well. The song she had been given was Watch Me Move by Antony Galatis, Mark Frisch and Yannic Fonderie. The later already had an arrangement credit on Chiara's 2005 Eurovision entry Angel while the former two would go on to write songs for Kim Wilde and Jennifer Rush.

Watch Me Move is a plea for eyeballs. It's mainstream, moderate-wattage girl-boppage of a few years vintage. Even though Katerine claims to be shaking things just for us, it's not as if others haven't shaken things in a similar style for the past two or three years. Yet this has competence, polish, a thumping, syncopated bassline, and a seductive rhythm that owes something to a synth-mutation of a tresillo/dembow that made me look up when Hips Don't Lie was released. Katerine beat Shakira to the punch by a whole month. It's a compulsive booty-shaking grab for attention that's difficult to resist.

It's a song that's of the moment both in pop terms and Eurovision terms - even more reason to want it on the stage in Athens. It started really well. Katerine continued her winning streak by walking away with heat one, winning it by a huge margin, winning the jury and televote, and finishing joint top of radio panel's vote.

All set for greatness then. Well, no. Hold your horses there. It appears that Katerine and this song were merely the flavour of the month for VRT. And that month was January 2006. When the semis started in February, she was unceremoniously dumped out in sixth place of the seven songs as her vote utterly collapsed. I'm not entirely sure what happened in that semi. The only live performance I've found is the one above which must be from the heat. If something went wrong in the semi I've not seen it mentioned.

Whatever happened, the song also became a hit. For the next three to four years, Katerine had a whole string of singles and albums released all over Europe, and her team tried particularly hard to crack the Greek market. Her biggest hit came with a cover of the 50 Cent song Ayo Technology which hit number one in several European charts in 2009. This version is from the Sopot Festival.

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Eurovision 2006 - Number 37 - Roxane - "Push It"

The girls are getting badder and boppier. This is Roxane Kalishoek last seen in Eurosong '04 scandalising Belgium with a similar number called Television Game. Prior to that she'd been in Belgium's answer to Steps - a band called Spirit - who failed to take-off. Her career diversified slightly into being not only a singer, but also a model and her path was set. Television Game got her name known and her face on posters on the walls of teenage boys all across Vlanderen.

In the intervening two years, she'd released her debut album, Naked, and enjoyed some success with her singles. When it was time for VRT to organise Eurosong again, she leapt at the opportunity with a song by long-standing Belgian producer and song-writer Mon 'S Jegers aka DJ Bonka.

That song is pure electropop. Push It features a dirty, grinding synth bassline that buzzes the filings from your teeth as Roxane tells us that she's in a hurry, so why don't you just get on with it, boy? It's a song that leaves very little to the imagination. The feeling is of someone using a TENS device to stimulate your auditory nerve in an attempt get a reaction - preferably one involving televotes.

There's no denying that it's memorable and catchy, however Roxane's voice is not the strongest (something that was also apparent in 2004) and that her most valuable asset is her commitment to her character and to the song.

It was always going to be a song that won votes from shock and the songs instant ability to catch attention. It's not a song that's get better with repeated listens, and that proved to be the case. In the heat, Roxane finished second and easily qualified for the semi-final. In that semi-final both her jury vote and her televote evaporated as the novelty wore off. The result was seventh place of seven songs and elimination.

Nevertheless it was enough to cement the success of the single and Roxane's status as a musical celebrity. That took her to some odd locations towards the end of the year when she was booked to appear for the Belgian troops stationed in southern Lebanon as part of the UN peacekeeping force newly stationed there to secure the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon after the second Lebanon war in the summer of 2006. This was apparently done in secret as the wives and relations of the soldiers though she was inappropriate as a Christmas entertainment and that they should have booked Barbara Dex instead.

Roxane then went on to perform for troops stationed in Afghanistan for similar reasons.

On her return to the Belgian music industry, her star was waning a little however she continued, even forming a band around her called ROXSTAR, although this wasn't too successful. Roxane did continue to do performances as well as investing in other business ventures.

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Eurovision 2006 - Number 39 - Eve Kempbell - "Not Right"

This not Eve Kempbell's first national final, although it is the first time she's taken to the stage under that name. In Eurosong '04, she was simply Eva. Her real name is Eva Lambaerts and she's probably one of the less known artists at Belgium's 2006 national final.

Nevertheless, she's got the up-to-date, rockier incarnation of the girl-bop down pat. Two years previously, she had a guitar backed ballad and some high vocals that she struggled with somewhat. In the intervening two years, she's found a UK-based production and song-writing team, some attitude, and a pair of skin-tight leather trousers. Now nothing's going to stop her.

Not Right is the epitome of the sexy girl put-down/break-up song. Sorry boys and girls, she's out of your league. And frankly she's laughing at the very idea of getting together with you. It's arrogant, vain, and aims to blast you out the club with her swagger and self-confidence. There is no doubt that there's no future with Eva no matter how much you might want it.

This song is much more suited to her abilities than her previous one. It's centred more in her range, and she gets to unleash some of the power she knows she can deliver (even if much of that's from the backing track). It's fun and indicative of much of what's on offer in many of this year's national finals. Strap yourselves in.

In 2004, Eva didn't get out of the heats, this year however she did. Finishing third in Heat 4, a place in the semi-finals was hers. There however, her national final journey came to a halt. Fourth place was one place too low and the judges wild card when to Brahim and not her .

This proved to be popular single on release and , with her name change, she released a few more singles on the back of it. She got a place on a national summer tour of the country alongside other well known names from the local music scene. That seems to have been it however. She does still have a YouTube channel, but it contains none of her own music, just playlists of music she likes.

The team behind Not Right created their own production and publishing company, DWB Music. Greig Watts and DWB went onto work with several other names from Eurosong '06 over the next few years, including the winner. This song marks the start of their efforts to get Belgian acts to Eurovision.

Even though her music career seems to have halted, Eve Kempbell did release a couple of singles in 2006 and 2007. Here's one of them, Fade

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 50 - WOEST - "Gek"

It's time for another of those national final songs by a group who appear to have been formed solely to compete in a national final and of whom there is no further trace. Perhaps in this case that's for the better as underneath the raging guitars and drums, this is a bitter gender prejudiced rant by an angry boy who wants girls, but really, really really doesn't like girls.

The only little bit of info I have about Woest (Wild) and this song Gek (Crazy - seeing a theme here?) is that it's written by Tom Van Landuyt. He may well be in the band - he may well even be the band. He released a later album under his own name on which he sang, wrote, and directed the music videos - and the songs sound very similar to this.

Gek is an alt-punky-rocky thing about a man who fantasises, fails to act on those fantasies, is filled with a considerably degree of self-hate because of his own perceived lack of manliness that his inaction brings, and who then turns this anger towards the women who won't dance to his dreams. There's the possibility that this is a criticism of such men - without the context of the band, who they are and their position on such things I'm unsure - but on face value this is not a happy song from a happy mind.

It is however a fast, guitar-driven blast of something Eurovision doesn't have often or even at all. It's not quite true punk - more 1990s alt-punk with a harder edge. It lacks that authentic sneer and swagger and replaces it with terminal disgruntlement. In a national final filled with self-determining self-sexualising women this is truly the outlier. Its nihilistic insight into gender politics circa 2006 portrays the shadow cast by the bright lights of the bops. The sexy, confident yin and the scary, aggressive, rageful yang.

Thing is I'm not convinced that Tom Van Landuyt is that sort of man. He might write and perform stuff like this, but he seems to be a well-respected actor and musician. He's founded a theatre company and produced Tolstoy. He's married to Angela Schijf, another famous Belgian actor who's appeared in his music videos, and had been with him when Gek was written and performed and who are still happily married over twenty years later. Tom Van Landuyt is a man who was involved in the Flemish dubbing of Alvin and the Chipmunks for goodness sake. What's going on here?!

Belgians help me out and tell me exactly what the context for this song is - I'd truly be grateful.

In the fourth heat of Eurosong '06, this nearly made it through, but not quite, finishing fourth of the seven songs. Tom never returned to Eurovision adjacent song competitions, but had gone on to have a wildly successful career.

For some sort of context, here's Tom singing Vrijhied while his wife acts in the video.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 64 - Fantoom - "Hier sta ik"

Kicking off 2006 with a flag video.

I'm not sure why the performance of this isn't available, as many other from the Belgian national final and semi-finals are, however this is what we're going to have to live with for a while.

Fantoom are new(ish) Belgian band looking to make a mark in a VRT year. That means a big national final with four heats, two semi-finals and a strange jury set up. Their sound is straight guitar rock with the Bingé brothers front and centre. Servaas is the singer with Hillert behind him on bass and Wouter on keyboards. They're also the song-writers. Ward De Clercq is on guitar with a few other hired hands brought in.

Hier sta ik (Here I Stand) is their first release as a group. It's a fast-paced run through the thoughts of a boy waiting for a girl and being desperate for her to like him. Nothing too out of the ordinary. A safe and seemingly well executed rock track that's relatively chaste amidst a sea of girl bops sung by girls who would appear distinctly less restrained and more urgent in their desires. In this context it feels like a song from a different time and place. The sort of song you might have heard at any point since the 1960s.

The one little element of musical flourish is the addition of a Hammond organ sound stabbing in throughout to take the edge off the conventionality of everything. It does have a sing-along chorus and I can imagine that if the band ever got enough fans to play big gigs, this might have been a sing-along favourite.

For Eurosong '06, they were in heat one and didn't do very well. They finished sixth of the seven songs, beating former Belgian Eurovision representative Vanessa Chinitor into last place. They also managed to finish fourth in the televote, but as the various juries didn't enjoy them, Fantoom were condemned to be forgotten contenders.

They did manage to stick together for a few years, get signed to a label and to release an album and two singles in 2008, but there's no indication they did very well. After this the bad broke up, with their drummers going on to perform in other bands. Of the Bingés there is little further news.

[mymodernhippy]

Date: 2017-08-10 19:40:06

Beatbox as an instrument Professional beatboxer and Vocal Artist. Winner of ‘Blue Note Award’ and the ‘BeatBox Special Award’, Belgian and Vice World Champion Beatbox, and soloist at the Royal Academy for Music in Aalborg (Denmark). Jury in 3 World Beatbox Championships and over 30 national Beatbox Championships Teacher of over 800 workshops and lessons (Real Festival, Vocal Jazz Summit, Europa Cantat, London A Cappella Festival, Aarhus Vocal Festival, Stanford University…) Vocal percussionist for Witloof Bay (Eurosong 2011), Bruk Braders, Vox North and Zap Mama. Guest performances for The Real Group, Swingle Singers, Leveleleven, Voces8, Clouseau, Lady Linn… Creating/performing in Theater and Dance shows: Les Daltoniens, Urban Nomads and Shobana Jeyasingh dance company. Band member and creator of ‘Beatoxic’, ‘Bruk Braders’ and ‘Wait A Minute’. Loves Gaming This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx