(WILL BE UPDATED VERY SOON!!)
"Wit-lof from Belgium:
oh la la la (c'est magnifique)!!"
Popular music from past & present, made in Belgium.
From Absynthe Minded and Adamo to Zap Mama and Zita Swoon, more great music has come out of Belgium than you may realise!
There is no shortage of popular music performers in Belgium. The first ones who come to mind are of course Jacques BREL, Salvatore ADAMO, ARNO & 'TC MATIC', (Leyers, Michiels and) 'SOULSISTER', 'The SCABS', MAURANE, Axelle RED, Philippe LAFONTAINE, or also Helmut LOTTI. And their fame extends well beyond our borders. However, this country abounds in plenty of other established talents in the most diverse trends.
For over ten years the offbeat group 'STTELLLA' has shown its mastery of the art of declaiming word play Belgian style in all its compositions.
'VAYA CON DIOS', headed by the singer Dani KLEIN, has also made an impression on the Belgian and international musical world with very jazzy harmonies and a piano bar style. They sold more than 7 million cd's.
The group 'STARFLAM' from Liège for their part rub shoulders with hip hop with their rap version of BREL's "Le plat pays".
LIO, the impudent Portuguese immigrant to Belgium, marked the 80's with spotlight songs like Banana split or Les brunes comptent pas pour des prunes.
In the north of the country the group 'CLOUSEAU' has won all the popularity polls.
Other singers, known as cabaret artists perform songs in the Dutch language. Johan VERMINNEN, Wannes Van De Velde (Antwerp), or the late Ann CHRISTY remain the outstanding figures of this musical style.
Other popular singers we can mention are André BIALEK and Julos Beaucarne, William Dunker for Wallonia, Walter De Buck (Ghent), Willem Vermandere (West Flanders), and Miel Cools (Limbourg).
On the other hand, groups such as 'TECHNOTRONIC', 'PRAHA KHAN' ('LORDS OF ACID'), 'FRONT 242', or 'SOULWAX' ('TOO MANY DJs') have achieved success with more electronic sounds.
Today 'HOOVERPHONIC', 'dEUS', ADMIRAL FREEBEE, 'NOVASTAR', SARAH BETTENS, OZARK HENRY, MAURO, SIOEN, 'MILLIONAIRE', 'DELAVEGA', or An PIERLÉ are some of the new stars of the Belgian music scene.
Belgians are not being left behind on the World Music scene either. The female group 'ZAP MAMA' (Marie Daulne and Co) readily describes its work as ethnic music from Brussels, a clever blend of Soul, Gospel and Afro-Cuban rhythms. World Music, a growing phenomenon, attracts crowds every year to the Couleur Café festival in Brussels, the Sphinx festival in Boechout and also at the Antillean festival in Hoogstraten.
Festivals are everywhere in Belgium: the Francofolies at Spa favour Belgian and foreign musicians performing in French; Pukkelpop and Dour focus on alternative music. Finally the unmissable Werchter rock festival often takes on the air of Woodstock revisited, thanks to a bill of international celebrities and an extremely muddy site.
The group 'MACHIAVEL', the singers Viktor LAZLO and Jo LEMAIRE, Philippe LAFONTAINE and the late lamented Pierre RAPSAT are also emblematic figures on the Belgian pop scene.
And finally we should not forget that a Belgian, SOEUR SOURIRE ('The singing nun'), made it to the top of the American hit parade in the 60's with the unforgettable Dominique, nique, nique. Or not to mention Sandra KIM, the youngest ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest... LOL
ALPHABETICAL LIST
(These are some of the top acts in the Belgian Pop & Rock Archive)
Absynthe Minded.
Adamo. Tombe la neige, Inch'Allah.
Admiral Freebee.
Allez Allez. A short but sharp career.
Arbeid Adelt! Weird and wonderful.
Arid. Jeff Buckley meets Freddie Mercury.
Arno. Putain, putain! C'est vâchement bien!
Arsenal.
Ashbury Faith.
Axelle Red. French soul by a Flemish redhead.
Sarah Bettens.
André Bialek, Ah la belle gigue, gigue que l'on pourrait danser
Big Bill, the Godfather of Belgian Blues.
Dirk Blanchart, on the verge of a breakthrough, 15 years long.
Blue Blot. Easy-listening blues with a voice from the past.
A Brand.
Jacques Brel, long dead, never forgotten!
Camden.
Ory Chalk.
Channel Zero. Hardest hitting band of Belgium.
Ann Christy. Emotional sounds from the seventies.
Clouseau. 5, 4, 3, 2 .... ?
Coco Jr.
The Cousins. Belgiums answer to the Shadows.
Daan
DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) make Herman Hesse sweat.
Das Pop. Britpop from Belgium
Jean-Louis Daulne.
Marie Daulne.
Dead Man Ray. dEUS meets The The ?
Kris Debruyne. Also with Lamp & Lazarus.
Wim Decraene. Strong dutch songs.
DeLaVega.
dEUS. Belgium's pride in fearful days.
Lou De Pryck. Where are "the Bananas"?
Pieter-Jan De Smet.
Jan De Wilde. Stubborn dutch singing marvel.
The Dinky Toys.
El Fish. Nothing fishy about it, just high quality blues.
Elisa Waut. A group and a girl. What a girl.
El Tattoo del Tigre.
Evil Superstars. What's Satan doing in your ass ??
Lara Fabian.
Flowers for Breakfast. Some girls like a disco.
Front 242. At the cradle of techno.
Girls in Hawaii.
Gorky - Gorki. What's in a name.
Francis Goya. Nostalgic melodies.
Rocco Granata. Marina Marina Marina.
Ferre Grignard. Ring it, I've got to sing it.
Raymond van het Groenewoud. Best Flemish artist by a mile.
Tom Helsen, nicknamed "Buffalo Tom Helsen"
't Hof Van Commerce. Rap from West-Vloanderen.
Hooverphonic. Triphop.
Irish Coffee, Belgium's answer to Black Sabbath.
Janez Detd., poppunk anno 90 and 2000
Jess & James with the J.J.Band, We gotta move !
K's Choice. Successful even in the States.
Kadril. Rock with bagpipes.
The Kids, authors of the unofficial Belgian anthem.
Billie King.
Kiss My Jazz. Improvisatiepop from the Antwerp scene.
Flip Kowlier.
De Kreuners proved rock'n roll in Dutch could be exiting.
Laïs. Young ladies causing a folk-revival.
Lasgo.
Viktor Lazlo, Belgian stylish haute-couture version of Sade.
Jo Lemaire, the girl, not the group.
Leyers, Michiels & Soulsister. Swinging like big dogs.
Lio. Perfect bubblegum pop.
Lunabee.
Luna Twist. A different smell from the same perfume.
Machiavel. Your local symphonic rock band.
Hugo Matthysen. Hilarious dutch rock.
Maurane. The siren of Homer ? OK
Mauro (Pawlowski)
De Mens. Rock-journalist tries to do it better.
Wim Mertens. Minimalist music.
Paul Michiels. Solo before and after Soulsister.
Milk Inc., milking their hit-formula.
Millionaire.
Ronny Mosuse.
La Muerte. The Birthday Party meets the Stooges.
Nacht Und Nebel. Fatso making a lasting impression.
Louis Neefs. Charismatic (but dead) crooner.
Neeka.
The Neon Judgement. From punk to new-wave to gothic to techno.
De Nieuwe Snaar. Combining music and theater in a virtuose way.
Noordkaap. Best Flemish-singing group around these days.
Novastar. Joost Zweegers & Co.
Octopus, British/Belgian close-harmony.
Ozark Henry, Triphop, pop, reggae, lounge, minimal ... in one.
The Pebbles. Hit wonder of the sixties.
Bart Peeters.
Belle Perez.
An Pierlé (& White Velvet). Girl hammering away at her piano.
Plastic Bertrand. Plastic Punk.
Poésie Noire. Experimental electrowave.
Praga Khan. Injected with a poison.
The Radios. TV-wonderboy takes to the airwaves.
Red Zebra. Can't live in a living room.
Django Reinhardt.
Gabriel Rios.
Roland (Van Campenhout). Still singing the blues.
Jean-Bosco Safari.
The Scabs. Your local Rolling Stones.
Bobbejaan Schoepen, the last of the Belgian Cowboys.
Beverly Jo Scott. Another American singer tries to make it from Brussels.
Sioen.
Soeur Sourire. Belgian nun who made a international number 1 hit.
Soulwax. The Belgian version of Soundgarden?
Starflam. Hip-hop at it's best.
Stash.
Stijn.
Sttellla. French humour.
Sukilove.
T.C. Matic. Arguably the best Belgian band ever.
Technotronic. Techno hit-wonder.
Telex. Belgium : 1 point.
Think of One.
Thou. Portishead meets Sonic Youth ??
Toots Thielemans. Ket whistling all the way to the top.
Triggerfinger.
Will Tura.
Urbanus. Musical comedian.
Luc Van Acker. Angry Young Musician.
Ian Van Dahl.
Tim Vanhamel.
Sven Van Hee.
Zjef Vanuytsel. Singer-songwriter of the Seventies.
Vaya Con Dios. Big all over Europe.
Venus Theatrical and acoustic.
Lynn Verlayne. NY based singer-songwriter
Johan Verminnen. One of the longest careers in quality music.
Wallace Collection. Daydream.
Wizards of Ooze. Superzam, Hyperbam.
Tom Wolf.
The Wolfbanes.
Won Ton Ton. They lie and they cheat.
X!nk.
X-legged Sally. Jazz-rock-funk la ... X-legged Sally.
Zap Mama. World music from Zare and Belgium.
Zita Swoon. Better known under their previous name Moondog Jr.
Who bids more?
You can't judge a book by the cover but you can't judge a SONG by the cover either. How many songs tell but half of the story, since in fact they derive from a complete different era/genre/artist than the hitversion?
On his website, and in his book "The Originals", Belgian author Arnold Rypens traces back the origin of more than 7.300 titles, songs we know or might know, hits and better misses.
©2005 - Dirk Houbrechts - Saul Akkemay
dEUS
NOVASTAR
HOOVERPHONIC
ARNO
Musicians' rights and MySpace Terms of Use Agreement
Until June 2006, there was a concern amongst musicians, artists, and bands on MySpace such as songwriter Billy Bragg owing to the fine print within the user agreement that read, "You hereby grant to MySpace.com a non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, modify, adapt, translate, publicly perform, publicly display, store, reproduce, transmit, and distribute such Content on and through the Services". The fine print brought particular concern as the agreement was being made with Murdoch's News Corporation. Billy Bragg brought the issue to the attention of the media during the first week of June 2006.
Jeff Berman, a MySpace spokesman swiftly responded by saying, "Because the legalese has caused some confusion, we are at work revising it to make it very clear that MySpace is not seeking a license to do anything with an artist's work other than allow it to be shared in the manner the artist intends".
By June 27, 2006 MySpace had lived up to their word and amended the user agreement with, "MySpace.com does not claim any ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, or any other materials (collectively, 'Content') that you post to the MySpace Services. After posting your Content to the MySpace Services, you continue to retain all ownership rights in such Content, and you continue to have the right to use your Content in any way you choose".
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Mar 2, 2007 9:23 PM
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NEW BULLETIN POST!
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