#Servaas Bingé

[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.

[topbooksindiet]

ICYMI: 16:8 - Servaas Bingé http://dlvr.it/RlqrQy