At the start of what we hopefully will refer to as the long hot festivalsummer of 2024, ArtistCongratz would like to zoom in on a colourful artist named Joran Kunde.
Born and raised in Ghent, with roots in Kameroun, this rapper, producer and multi instrument player combines hip hop elements with contemporary jazz, funk and afro-beats🎶.
With a debut called “Dandelion”, we are almost immediately triggered to find out more about the story behind an extraordinary album, named after what we all tend to refer to as…weeds.
Kunde: Dandelion.🌼 The little fluffy flower you can blow the seeds from, felt like a metaphor to me. Throughout the years I thought about it visually several times.
I remember being very fond of these flowers when I was little. I loved to blow on them, to see them “float”. But I also remember a woman telling me: “Don’t blow on those, they spread weeds.” They turned out to be unwanted flowers. At least for most people. I didn’t see them that way.
“In between Belgium and Kameroun”
Kunde: Growing up in Belgium while having roots somewhere else had its challenges, like anywhere else.You have to kind of adapt to some kinds of climate to flourish.
So I began to see the dandelion as this metaphor. Feeling like a little seed, blown through the winds of time, looking for a place to sprout, grow and flourish. At the same time being labeled “an unwanted flower”.
Joran Kunde
The trigger for the album actually came from going back to Kameroun where part of my roots are. Far far away, like seeds of Dandelion, flown with the wind.
I don’t think people should be bound to geography, migration is a natural process. In my core as a human being I believe that all humans on this planet originally come from Africa somehow. Dandelion is a way to reflect all this…
Kunde about his concert in Ancienne Belgique on March 27th: Surreal and fantastic…it’s crazy to perform at such an iconic location and opening for icons like Amadou & Maryam. This was the second time we played in AB. Six months prior we did one show in AB-club. Being able to play for the first time in the main hall for more than 1500 people felt awesome.About his collaboration with singer songwriter Helena Casella:
AC witnessed her live at TAZ 2023. Kunde: I played the day before her…
AC: sorry we missed that…are you working together regularly?
Kunde: I am actually working on a second album. I’m still figuring out how the music will work but I already have one song with her. Fun fact: we recorded it the same date we recorded
“You should know” on which Helena features. After a session of three hours, we felt the inspiration and made something from scratch. We both felt that this was not a one time thing…
Never before the controverse was so omnipresent at the worlds most legendary music festival. The ESC of Malmö is one for the historybooks. How symbolical this Switzerland win. Although neutrality no longer seems of this world when innocent children are paying the price.
But it should be about the music. United by Music is not a hollow sentence. It’s a way of life. For artists and audiences worldwide 🌍From Europe to Australia 🎶🇪🇺🇦🇺
ArtistCongratz
A great song with a message should always win. 🥇 Congratz on a flawless, ground-, border-, award-🙈and code breaking performance finding a 🆕 «Nemo»🤜🏆🤛
Special Congratz to my contemporaries Malin Åkerman & Petra Mede👸🏼👸🏻🇸🇪, ultimate professionals, presenting and hosting this 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in difficult circumstances 👏🎙️🎧📻🎶Dear Malin, Petra, On a slightly smaller scale;) but nonetheless extremely fun- we’re definitely colleagues;), (picture taken yesterday in the studio of our local radiostation 🎙️whilst me (also in white;)) presenting and co-hosting a Eurovision parade throughout history 🎶 Which felt amazing, so I can only imagine what it must feel like to actually host the Eurovision Song Contest 💭🥰😍Also Special Congratz to this years runner up Croatia🇭🇷and No 3 La Douce France 🇫🇷, our personal favourites« Finding Nemo next level »
What if a living statue falls for a real one? Sounds like an instant recipe for a universal fairytale doesn’t it? A unique lovestory pairing new to ancient times. A fine filmmaker makes it come true on the big screen in “Hearts of Stone”.
Scene 🎬 from “Hearts of Stone”, shot in this beautiful park in metropolis Antwerp
Step into the mind of director Tom Van Avermaet. Inventive, extremely creative and perfectionist upon till The End-credits of his brainchildren🎞.
And yes most certainly his name should ring more than one bell. A previous short film of his, called “Death of A Shadow”, featuring another Belgian pride- and joy in cinema; Matthias Schoenaerts, was nominated for an Oscar in 2013.
What better way to find out more about the making of his newest production than to ask the director himself…
Tom: I’ve always been fascinated by living statues. I knew they were out there. Acting and pretending to be statues. It made me think about what their world would or could be like. Turned out their community was slightly different from what I imagined.
AC: How’s that?
Tom: I always wanted to do something with living statues in film. But not quite sure yet about the kind of story I should tell about them. I guess I had more of a naïve kind of view on their world to begin with.
Maybe I saw them less as professionals and more like this kind of imaginary community.
In my world living statues would be people that long for a time that isn’t there anymore or maybe never was. Some sort of imagined past…and going back to this imaginary past that maybe never existed.” So I decided to use that by telling…a love story. Baseline: “Living statue falls in love with a real statue.” Which kind of made sense to me instantly.
This particular scene was also shot in Antwerp (Handelsbeurs)
AC: So Hearts of Stone turns out to be a modern fairytale 📽…
Tom: That’s kind of how the story came to be…but I also wanted to talk about modern loneliness. A lot in the movie is also about cell phones and social media. How do we communicate with each other.
The more (digital) opportunities we have to communicate with each other the less we’re able to communicate with each other in real life.
Tom Van Avermaet
AC: You want to hold a mirror to society ?
Tom: That might be too big of a word. SomehowI wanted to explore that particular feeling/issue through this story. More about why it seems easier or more difficult to be able to talk to someone.
It’s like the character says in the film. “Is it easier to talk to someone on the other side of the world than to talk to someone who’s next to you?”
That’s quite of an interesting, modern kind of dynamic, which we’re still trying to explore with social media. The impact it has on our lives and how we live through our devices in a way.
And taking that or pushing it to the extreme.
When the statue comes to life in the movie, the viewer gets an idea of what’s it like to be a statue and how they might feel in general.
In one particular scene, when the real statue (Jessica Barden) actually comes to life, she starts looking for her friend (played by Noomi Rapace) almost immediately. The light and the aura around the statue character are striking.
“Directing like a visual artist 🖼️”
AC: You manage to create this kind of rarely seen universe. We are curious about your journey in cinematography.Without breaking the spell, could you tell us how you create these striking visual effects ?
Tom: As you know film is always a collaborative art so we try to work with good people. I was lucky to do that with all my films. With talented cinematographers who were able to understand the kind of idea or vision I wanted to come to life. From “visual vision” to post production.
You shoot the image in a certain style. We chose to shoot with anamorphic lenses. Lot’s of films are shot on spherical lenses. Anamorphic is more a wide angle format. It’s the first time I did that.
I love to have a wide angle in all my films. Sort of like a painting style…🖼️ I always feel that an image can convey a lot of emotions.
Tom Van Avermaet
Tom: I’ve always been drawn to cinematography which has a very painterly style. I’ll aways try to frame the shot (emoji painting) that way as well… kind of an artistic point of view on the image. I always feel that an image can convey a lot of emotions.
Tom: In all my films so far, I’ve worked with a different cinematographer. This time I worked with DOP Hans Bruch jr. Hearts Of Stone is our first collab.
Which is not like a deliberate choice but the people I work with are usually in high demand so…You have to pick when the actors are available, not when the cinematographers are. Unfortunately…🙂
But I was lucky to find a new collaborator on this. And still be able to create the same kind of feel I like to give through my other films🎥🎞️.
Talking to Director Tom at Victor Café near Bozar Brussels, (wide-angle-shot :))
But Daniel Verstappen is actually living International PIANO YEARS. Composing, playing and mesmerizing audiences all over the globe, his music reaches further by every concert of his Reconnection-worldtour.🎵🎶
Paying tribute to his beloved instrument, called «Soulmate🎹», Daniel keeps pushing boundaries. Partners-in-rhyme 🎶like fiddlefairies 🎻Marina Barskaya & Beth Giorgiou accompany him near some of the world’s most famous landmarks.
From Harpa Reykyavik last fall and the fairytale-like Rudolfinum in Prague just last March, Daniel is now headed to Sydney Opera House this early spring.
While beautiful but fragile scenery often plays a major part in music and video’s by Daniel and his team, the audience is always in for an amazing journey 🎶.
ArtistCongratz
Picture by Lauren Pletinckx
Many highlights in his career these past few years call for even more spectacular celebrations 🔛stage and 🔛line.
Stunning audio & video performances keep rhyming spectacular scenery with powerful pianoplay.
At a press conference earlier this year at Havenhuis Antwerp, Daniel presented a view behind the scenes & making of his latest video Ice on Fire, a co-production with Marina Barskaya and Amine Dukali (picture by Lauren Pletinckx)
Daniels host for the PRESS conference: Belgian singer and presenter Amaryllis Temmerman
Whether his notes 🎶shine underneath Swedish northern lights or above seismic activity in Iceland, Daniel always manages to share his soft spot for the environment through pianomusic. Watch Daniel’s latest video and track Ice on Fire 🔛YouTube⤵️
❄️🔥
Happy to host Daniels Documentary “Bridge between Cultures” in 2023, ArtistCongratz got a major scoop about some highlights already in the making back then.
🎙️
Relive some magic moments with ArtistCongratz interviewing a composer and pianist breaking through on stages worldwide today 🌎🎼
And now an ultimate moment -one of many still to come but unique none the less- has almost arrived! This Sunday April 7th a childhoodwish will come true for Daniel…playing far far away from his home country 🇧🇪🇦🇺, inside the iconic Sydney Operahouse, building new bridges down under 🙌
More major stops lay ahead after Australia and New Zealand…Ghent Handelsbeurs as a home run on May 26th and then off to Kennedy Center Washington and…🥁🎹Carnegie Hall New York 🗽🎹 in June.
Ready for my favourite prime time of the year? And hopefully yours as well🙃
Yay🙌 It’s…OSCARTIME🎬🎦🎥🎞️
Unfortunately no fellow Belgians nominated at this 96th edition of the Academy Awards. No worries ArtistCongratz has some foreign favourites to share with you. Amidst the Barbenheimer frenzy there is one particular underdog or outsider we’d like to cheer for. The nomination of “Past Lives” by Celine Song is so well deserved.
The catchy last name of the director couldn’t be more appropriate. She truly made a movie like a love song. 🎵
This is an absolute must see till The very End. The baseline of this gem? “InYun”, which means providence or fate in Korean.
Reality and imagination rule side by side in this heartbreaking, semi-autobiographical universal lovestory about what could have been for two childhood sweethearts. So many of these characters’ words and lines remain left unspoken in a way rarely seen before.
Fandango’s Oscarpredictions in CBSnews do not mention “Past Lives”, but ArtistCongratz does 🙂
While Magrittes masterpiece “l’Ami Intime” is being auctioned at Christies London for over 39 million Euro’s, awards in Frenchspeaking Belgian cinema bearing the iconic artists name are about to be distributed.
This shiny silver trophy called Magritte du Cinéma does the master honour, whom was passionate by motion pictures
Yes it’s that time of the year again!
Ensor, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild check✔️
Oscar’s just around the corner but first Les Magrittes du Cinéma 2024 are about to land into the studio’s or homes of a brandnew generation of talented Belgian filmmakers near Brussels this Saturday.
Augure, Baloji’s masterpiece on which we shed our bloggers light at Filmfest Ghent some posts ago is nominated several times in different categories.
But competition remains though. From “Dalva” for instance, this Cannes and FFO selected film by Emmanuelle Nicot about a twelve year old girl and her particular story ⤵️
Dalva is 12 years old but dresses, puts on makeup and lives like a woman. One evening, she is suddenly removed from her father's home. At first revolted and completely incomprehensible, she will meet Jayden, an educator, and Samia, a teenager with a strong character. A new life then seems to be offered to Dalva, that of a young girl of her age.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6IAtn9Ue3bg
Also nominated for best Flemish film: 🎬Wil by Tim Mielants based upon the book by Jeroen Olyslaegers, 🎬Débâcle by Veerle Baetens based upon the book “Het smelt” by Lize Spit, 🎬Luka (Jessica Woodworth) and last but not least 🎬Holly by Fien Troch, which we wrote about last fall.
Let’s shed some light on the latest project of a remarkable Swiss composer-storyteller based in Brussels. To ArtistCongratz he comes across far from scary… nevertheless the music we are talking about is called “Unheimlich” (scary in German but meaning much more) The third album written by Camille-Alban Spreng’s ODIL is the first one ft. Nina Kortekaas.
Triggered to know the story behind it, we had an inspiring chat with Camille 🎙️
Camille Alban Spreng: Unheimlich is a funny word actually. It doesn’t have any real translation, in English nor French. The basic idea of the album is trying to translate this word into music. It describes a feeling you might know and yet sometimes you might not be able to grasp it. Very strange.
AC: Something mysterious, unexplainable?
Camille: You could say that yes. Actually the term was invented by Sigmund Freud to describe the feeling when something comes from your subconsciousness. The right to your subconsciousness is triggered by something you see or hear. You know what is happening but at the same time it feels very strange…a little bit like a déjà vu or even a premonition.
AC: How do you start to translate something like this into music?
Camille: Fascinated by the work of the great American poet Allen Ginsberg from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, I wanted to bring a kind of hommage to his writing.✍️ His work also has this kind of strangeness, weirdness to it. And at the same time it’s deeply rooted into our daily life.
As I was writing 🎼, thesetwo ideas were living at the same time. There are actually a lot of links between the poetry of Ginsberg and this captivating word I wanted to translate into music. Our mission with Nina is to make all this more accessible through the songs.🎵
ArtistCongratz 🔝 selection surely includes “Daily Wonder”
Camille: That’s a funny one. It’s a ballad and a long mellow song. The only one on the album. The first idea of this song was to adapt a Ginsberg-poem but in the end I chose another direction and wrote the lyrics myself. The idea behind the song ? What if we could see everything in the world and witness the daily life of whom ever…or looking at the daily life of an animal or a plant for instance.🌱
AC: A mysterious animal actually features on the cover of your album…
Camille: That’s exactly what I wanted… somewhat unheimlich…🐾 …just so you know, it’s actually a dalmation;)
Want to witness some «🎶Unheimlich🎵» manoeuvres first hand? ODIL is playing live this Friday February 23 @Rataplan – Borgerhout/Antwerp https://www.rataplanvzw.be/e/odil
Halfway through Belgian music week ArtistCongratz would like to shed some more spotlight 🔛our national music scene. Once more lots of international potential is detected🎶🙌
After ESNS, the annual awardceremony in the Dutchspeaking part of Belgium is on our schedule. They are called The MIA’s, short for Music Industry Awards. This year they were held in Antwerp. Organized by vi.be (supporting our Belgian music scene💪🎼) and national channel VRT.
Join us for some captivating images of absolute highlights⤵️ during the show:
After last years “natural high” on top of the Atomium in Brussels by Oscar & The Wolf, meet this year’s showstarter: Gustaph, border breaking performer/creator in 2023. “Because of you” keeps inspiring audiences and artists, The song turns out as one of the most successful Belgian entries of the Eurovision Song Contest. (Picture by Jokko/VRT)Meet multi-talent Pommelien Thys, hot in Flanders because of her own unique artistic approach. Besides acting in different series, writing her own songs and performing them with panache, she also designs her own ecofriendly, conscious 🌱fashion 🔛 stage. She wins no less than five Music Industry Awards. CONGRATZ indeed Pommelien! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (pic by Jokko/VRT)Pommelien in concert 🎵 💃🩰The MIA “Breakthrough of 2023” goes to thankful “nominee-along-such-talented-fellow-artists” Aron Blommaert. Nicely presented by Miss Loena Hendrickx, European Champion, our national pride in Figureskating 🥇⛸️ (pic by Jokko/VRT)And this long braided multi-awarded beauty waltzes through lalaland and “Different Waters📀” by the name of Coely, our international hip hop pride. She was handed her prize by a famous Belgian goofy influencer called Average Rob⤵️🦸🏻(pic by Jokko/VRT)
Average Rob; not quite that average where Marvel’s characters are concerned
And this is Portlands Jenthe Pironet (best alternative 🎸) on the left, alongside Metejoor, also nominated in different categories🙌🎵🎶Jenthe also wins the award for the most heartwarming speech, dedicating his prize to medical science and care ❤️🩹 (pic by Jokko/VRT)Rapper winner Brihang definitely has a heart for all things going wrong in the world 🌎 ⬇️ “make music not war & cease all fires.” Hear his Peace pleas(e)🎶 ✌️(pic by Jokko/VRT)Another moving moment highlighting the ceremony. All time Flemish audience favourite Hugo Sigal dedicates his award for best (Flemish) popular to his late partner on and off stage Nicole, who sadly passed away too soon. (pic by Jokko/VRT)A lifetime of folky music is crowned🤴🏻🎶. With lyrics involving all our daily concerns like bread 🥖, spoons 🥄 and… WiFi of course. Bart Peeters gets his special award by another national icon Raymond van het Groenewoud. (pic by Jokko/VRT)CONGRATZ to all winners and nominees 🙌, check all of them 🔛 https://mias.vrt.be (pic by Jokko/VRT)
Kate Ryan, iconic artist who also defended our colours at Eurovision back in 2006 🇧🇪 remember her famous knee move while bringing her now-evergreen “Je t’adore”🎵♥️ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHnre0q3ow
And this far-from-freaky-fellow I interviewed more than a decade ago with his band Freaky Age. Cheers to Lenny Crabbé👋🥂, son of Luc Crabbé (Telstar/Betty Goes Green)
Meet Lenny number two :), also a very gifted musician
And this must be the most famous soundman🎤in Flanders. In the picture a lot but always his likable self. Whom everybody knows simply by his first name: Pascal.
And last but not least a selfie 🤳 with these multitalented ladies, pianist/designer Tylaine (in the middle) and singer Zohra🎶🎤How about a red wall instead of the regular carpet… Don’t you just love this quote from «The Voice»? An absolute work of art adorning this wall of the locker room @ music lab Trix Antwerp Thank you VRT, TRIX, Sportpalace & VI.Be for including ArtistCongratz 🎶
A whole 🆕 generation of artists keeps moving Europe to even newer levels. Witness their beauty first hand with us at the headquarters of emerging music talents, performing @ ESNS from all over the continent. On Thursday, Stadsschouwburg Groningen hosted the 20th edition of the Music Moves Europe Awards.
Blown away by this 2️⃣0️⃣th Anniversary-year’s winner, our pics and reels will tell you more than a thousand words. Don’t take ours for it… See for yourselves 🕶️
A Star is Born, Zaho de Zagazan Moves. In more ways than one… Quirky Zaho offers her audience a live and kicking therapy-on-and-off-stage. Want to quit smoking in a way you never attempted before? Or chase away sadness with captivating ballads, pumping beats and groovy lyrics? 🎤
En français s’il vous plait 🇫🇷🎶 (picture by yours truly)From Groovy to Dreamy…💭 ArtistCongratz meets Song Lines Magazine & Euronews 👋Nice to meet you Emma & Jonathan!Zaho receiving her grand jury award by…🥁🥁🥁…Mister Jools Holland, presented by musician Giulia Grispino (Sans Soucis)Zaho (full name: Zaho-Agathe Le Moniès de Sagazan), on stage she gives it her all and more…find out frontrow/first hand how her debut album « La Symphonie des Éclairs » saw the light of day. Inspired by her own sensitivity she manages to translate struggles into healing. Song by song, like one called « Tristesse »A « (non) smoking tribute »Zaho about a major discovery in life🎹Zaho’s thank you note to her partners in rhyme 🎶 🥁🎹
Many MME-awarded artists have preceded her into stardom… Cheers to her, Dua Lipa, Stromae, Meduza and many more. And by all means also to their iconic master of ceremony Jools Holland📻
Flash-back 🔛two decades of Music Moves Europe Awards which actually started as the Europe Border Breaking Awards in 2004. Happy Anniversary! Congratz!Congratz to all the nominees, blog you later 👋🎶✍️ discover all 🔛https://mmeawards.eu/en/
ESNS stories to be continued…Coming 🆙next: Waterbaby👸🏾🇸🇪, Ralphie Choo🎶🇪🇸, Arny Margret 🇮🇸…and of course more Booming artists from my native country 🇧🇪🙌 celebrating Belgian Music week!
Did she just stagedive right behind me? 💥🥳 Go go go, Zaho!👱🏻♀️
This January we report from 🆙 north at ESNS, in a snowy Groningen way high in the Netherlands 🇪🇺🇳🇱Flakes of new sounds are coming (y)our way.
ArtistCongratz was here once before. In 2020, right before Covid hit, we spotted different careers throughout Europe in motion here, like Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul from Belgium 🇧🇪, Perfect Son from Poland 🇵🇱, Meduza from Italy 🇮🇹, Karina from Finland🇫🇮 and many more.
We saw them first at ESNS:)
What better way to get you acquainted with 🆕 artists crossing our paths in 2024 than by images and sounds in all the right venues. From scintillating churches to trendy discotheques and theatres throughout a captivating city of music lovers. 🏙️🎶
Hosted by the most welcoming shiny happy helping people. Like Nikkie, Renée and Jet from ESNS. Or Myrthe & Bert, picture-perfect-personal native guides to our first concert this year.⤵️
Who needs Google Maps🗺️ when you run into the kindest personal native streetguides. Thank you Myrthe & Bert! 🧤👋
« Where do we begin? » A track signed Michael Karkousse also known from the dance formation Goose, lead us towards to our second venue. But before Simplon we made a stop @ Lutherchurch to witness some female empowerment by strings and vocals called Bluai from Belgium ⤵️
Bluai in concert @ Lutherse kerk 💒January 17th
Simply Simplon 🎶, up- and downstairs 🎤💥Michael Karkousse playing @ Simplon Main – January 17thPull some strings & Pump those beats
Caught 🆙 in the moment 🙌
Make sure to check our Stories 🔛socials for even more footage (tania_gh_ram) & ArtistCongratz 🔛TikTok 🎶
ArtistCongratz 