Extra spotlights on Belgium this year @ESNS, winning an MME Award, thanks to Camille Yembé ! (more good news about this promising talent coming up 👇)
No better way to start our year, heading north for the picturesque town of Groningen. To witness first hand how music keeps moving Europe, every way possible.
Especially festive this 40th edition of ESNS offered another new generation of young talent stages all over the city to share their newborn repertoire. With music professionals from across and even beyond Europe. Break through(s) across the continent coming 🆙
That might just be the case for the Belgian band Lézard we saw perform on opening night in Oosterpoort ⤵️
Lézard in concert means move move move 🤘🎸👯♀️🪩 this Ghent based band manages to blend (post-) punk, pop and so much more…
At MME this year the jury seemed to have a particularly hard job choosing the annual awardwinners, following the footsteps of now-worldwide-known-artists like Dua Lipa, ROSALÍA or Stromae. Like him also from Belgium ↪️ please meet Camille Yembé, young singer/songwriting talent from Brussels & winner of the first MME award of the evening.
And there they are, the winners of the MME Awards 2026, with Camille on the right holding her trophy 💜🏆 In the middle: Winner of both the Public Choice and Grand Jury Award: Felicidades Lia Kali from Spain 🇪🇸 👏 That same night Camille Yembé gave a stunning performance at MachineFabrik, just around the corner of the awardvenue Stadsschouwburg. With a frontrow spot for ArtistCongratz 🤳⤵️Highlight of the showcase: Camille presenting for the first time live @ ESNS her moving newborn song “Je n’ai jamais dit à personne”, leaving the audience beyond impressed. As ESNS describes it well: “Camille Yembé shows that her music resonates widely, establishing her as one of Belgium’s most promising contemporary artists.”
As we blog about it, it turns out Camille makes a particularly strong debut in the ESNS-chart, entering at number 11 with this very single, a moving mixture of compelling storytelling and distinctive sound.
Her strong momentum is to be continued on stages across the continent, starting by La Ville des Lumières on April 28th, where she wil play at La Maroquinerie.
In Springtime: Paris awaits 🎫Ticketsale on going ⤵️
Care for more impressions of this year’s special anniversary edition ? Enjoy the ESNS vibe in our photo gallery 📸
Lia Kali, singer songwriter from Barcelona 🇪🇸, gave a live performance at the Stadsschouwburg after winning both the Public Choice and the Grand Jury Award.Lia is known for her genre-blending musical style that combines soul, reggae, jazz, R&B, and Latin pop.These MME-awardwinning singer songwriting sisters are called Sarah Julia, an exceptional band, made in…The Netherlands 🇳🇱, homecountry which they also represented in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 2013On behalf of Carpetman, a heartwarming thank you adressed to Europe for supporting country Ukraine 🇺🇦 Projecting trips down memory lane on landmarks in the city center It gave extra shine to this jubilee edition: the list of world famous artists who started their career @ ESNS is quite impressive🇧🇪🙌
Coming across highly talented international creators and performers at sea…probably means you are on… a cruise in international waters ☀️🚢.
This post is dedicated to all the magnificent artists and gentle people I came across on MSC Lirica in early March.
Congratz to all of you !
And we were lucky to be able to personally meet and greet one particular dancing duo 🩰 💃🕺nice to meet you Sam and Laura!
Thank you for treating the audience every single night to your dazzling twists and turns on the ship’s Broadway theater stage. Not to mention your stunts at last Thursday’s White Goodbye-Party of course 🤍 👋
⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️🕺🤍💃
Special Congratz to Sam and Laura from Columbia 🇨🇴 !!
Thank you for sweeping us away with your avant garde state-of-the-art-modern-meets-classic-choreographies 🔥
Buena suerte para ambos !! Hasta la vista y muy bienvenidos en los escenarios belgas en el futuro 🤗 🎶🩰
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…
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
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 🎶
It’s D-Day for Baloji and his first feature film Augure. In cinema’s across Belgium this November 15th.
Just last month, Augure was presented at Filmfest Ghent in the official selection, following Cannes in Spring.
Augure, being the French word for omen, tells the story of exactly that.
A small omen to the members of The Academy perhaps ? A good one.
Our filmmakers won’t budge. Once more presenting a fine opportunity to “Oscarize” a filmgem by a multitalented Belgian artist.
Omen To Be Continued
ArtistCongratz
Director Baloji and his main cast at the Belgian premiere of Augure/Omen at this years 50th edition of Filmfest Ghent
Four characters, considered witches or wizards by their families and communities, see their paths cross in a magical-realist Congo. Only through mutual aid and reconciliation can they escape the curse that rests on them. Cast: Lucie Debay, Marc Zinga, Eliane Umuhire
Half a century of iconic festivalmoments in international cinema on Belgian soil. This calls for a special celebration. ArtistCongratz’ cue to make Filmfest Ghent’s image- and soundwizards shine even more this year✨
2023 will enter history as the 50th edition opened by Holly, selected in Venice just last September, and the fifth feature film, directed by Fien Troch.
Once again this Belgian talent makes us watch more closely into the sometimes harsh world youngsters have to deal with.
From 22 November Holly will play in cinemas in Belgium
Be sure not to miss our next post, zooming in on the creative process of Fien and her crew/cast as well as the amazing course of the film so far.
But first we’d like to focus on two other impressive productions.
One is likely to become Oscarnominated in 2024, called “Past Lives”, by Celine Song. This story about childhood sweethearts frozen in time will touch many (broken) hearts.
The other is the first VR experience at Filmfest Ghent. “Floating with spirits” will submerge you into a universe in and out of this world. Created by the Colombian-Belgian director Juanita Onzaga, featuring…her audience.
By placing the viewer in the middle of her film, he becomes part of it.
While she whispers the story as if she doesn’t want to bother the spirits, she makes them dance around, one with nature.
“Floating with Spirits” is an absolute must-experience
Augustijn Vermandere. His name sounds like a clock in Flanders.
With his father being one of our most treasured troubadours, Willems youngest son is making his own way quite successfully as a musician and singersongwriter.
ArtistCongratz is keen to find out more about his latest album Vier, which is West Flemish dialect for “Fire” as well as Dutch for “Celebrate” and “Four”.
So Vier is like Celebrating Four times with Fire!
Augustijn presenting his latest album live at De Grote Post in Ostend
AC: Congratz on your new album Augustijn! Nice opportunity to compare West Flemish and English with you, being a native singer songwriter.
Augustijn: Thanks! Actually I think there are similarities between the two. Being close to England might have something to do with it. Probably also our history of always tending to adapt ourselves. Belgians in general, West Flemings even more.
So it seems rather logic that foreign words pop up in our dialects. Mostly in spoken language.
I actually read that the whole coastal area of Europe has more English sounding words in their vocabulary than the inland area does. So I guess we must be connected somehow.
How do you come across this “phenomenon” while writing lyrics ?
On my new album, there’s this song called Bucketlist. An English word but often used here as well. Searching for a West Flemish “translation”, there seemed to be no good alternative.
I realised that “bucket list” actually sounds really Flemish. So I used it.
AC: How about Bulldozer 🎶
Augustijn: (laughs) indeed, another English word incorporated in Belgium. And Vier…
Nice talk in Augustijn’s hometown Ostend
AC: Any plans to cross our borders?
Augustijn: It’s not really my ambition but you never know… Icelanders also have a very strange sounding language practically no one else understands. But no one seems to mind that in the rest of Europe. People like it eventhough no one understands. Why should West Flemish be any different (laughs).
Augustijn rocks 🎸🥁
AC: The song Steenkerke on Vier bathes in pure nostalgia…
Augustijn: A little village, there’s nothing there but still it’s my whole world. At least it used to be as a kid. This is a nostalgic song sung by my five year old self about the place I grew up in. Near historic monuments that go back to World War I. Like a military cemetery, where both English en Belgian soldiers are buried. This was one of our favourite places where we used to play a lot. There’s this beautiful lawn. Always very quiet…
AC: You also sing about catching sticklebacks in the canal with a “seule”. And in your album’s artwork we can actually see pictures of you as a toddler. Were you already into music back then?
Augustijn: They bought me a violin when I was four years old but I don’t recall playing it (laughs). But music was always present in the house in many forms with instruments all around. I started by some piano and guitar…
By the way a “seule” is actually a bucket where we would collect the fish in.
AC: Great, one more West-Flemish word learnt, to check off on our… bucket-list.
🎵🎶🔥4️⃣🥳 open call; find out which song refers to epic lyrics written by Augustijn’s father Willem 🛣
3’Ain! عينWhere west joins east in sea(s) of stories. Narrated by a jazztrio on point.
(Re)discover our interviewee Piet Maris (accordion), founder of Jaune Toujours and 3’Ain, surrounded by his fellow-bandmembers Otto Kint (double bass) and Yamen Martini (trumpet) -picture by Diana Takcsova-
“Reversed three”
AC: Very important first question! Inspired by the eighteenth letter of the arabic alphabet, how do you pronounce the name of your newest band ? عين Because reportedly for western people it seems almost impossible to pronounce…
Piet: (laughs) Actually that’s what Wikipedia says, it’s more of a story than a reality. I played in a trio before with a Syrian cello player. Really eager to do something similar, I wanted to continue in a trio formula.Searching for a name, I really wanted it to refer to us as a trio and to our cultural bagage. Including our middle eastern influences through Yamen.
So I came up with this character as a reversed three, which is actually some sort of sign: عين
In Arabic chat and sms conversation , the AIN is often represented by a 3, sometimes explicitly mentioned as 3ain. So here comes in this 3 AIN.
Piet Maris
That was a good starting point for me. You should pronounce it a bit in the back of the throat.Ch ain, Three like in English, ein like in German if you want…:)
AC: Makes you wonder how does that go when announced on stage?
Piet: They always ask the question, how do we pronounce it? Actually it’s not so hard but it creates a story indeed. Although I wasn’t aware of that in the very beginning.
“Instant click”
AC: You met Yamen while making music for a play?
Piet: We actually met amidst the asylum crisis of 2016. Yamen had arrived in Belgium earlier but at some sort of manifestation, making a solidarity demo for refugees, we were kind of put together as musicians. “You will blend well” they said. Luckily we actually did;).
We instantly clicked. From that moment on, I started to involve him in my on going projects. Like this very special one in Mortsel. Initiated by Caroline Rottier. She’s a theatre maker, known for her inclusive work. In which she also involves people with disabilities. She asked me to do the music for this piece called “Move”. About people on the move. A very nice play and open project, offering a lot of artistic freedom.
We rehearsed with the actors. At first just me as a musician, to get the inspiration. At a certain point I pulled in Yamen, and the other cello-player to collaborate. This was our first creation together.
“Scrambled Ensor”
AC: Sounds really cool indeed. But so does your working space where 3’Ain gets inspired by all kinds of boats passing by… 🛥🚢⛴🛳
Piet: We have this huge privilege to be able to rehearse in the port of Ostend, in the quarters of a social artistic work place called O666, at the site of Fort Napoleon. (Picture by Diana Takacsova)
Being one of the very few places over there with a very ancient character to it, quite the contrast with all those posh new built projects in the neighbourhood.
It has a recording studio, which we use as a rehearsing room. It happens to have a big window with a magnificent view to the boats passing by.
Like the BZ189🎶🛥, spotted while looking outside pretty randomly: which-boat-is-here? Songs, titles and tracks are born here. This is where our first EP was made. Clearly 🙂
Piet: Sea of Stories, our recent album, still contains references to the sea but less literally. For instance, there is a song called: Scrambled Ensor.
AC: Great title.
Piet: Actually we didn’t invent it ourselves. During a livestream in confinement, playing some sort of première of the song, we asked our virtual audience to come up with a title.
Everyone had a strong souvenir of the period you weren’t allowed to go the seaside etc. Possibly they were inspired by former works of us. Explaining why the Ostend-reference is still there.
Piet Maris
“Exchange between cultures”
AC: 3’Ain tends to reach a large audience ?
Piet: I also find it very charming to see a punkrock band in concert. They tend to reach a more specific audience. But a lot of music is broading up these days. I like to keep the music accessible in all my projects. Always seeking common ground. For 3‘Ain, in different fields of western music, going in dialogue with middle eastern traditions.
Nor me, nor the bass player Otto, are very familiar with all those traditions. In that way Yamen is facilitating our exchange between cultures.
Our song “Meeting Issues” represents his feeling of being “wired”, how hard it is missing his family all over the world…
ArtistCongratz’ cue to make y’all experience this narrative sound of 3’Ain in even more intriguing titles like Tango Soleil du Nord🎶 Listen below 🤳👇
Want to experience Sea of Stories by 3’Ain live? Go see this trio in concert coming 🔜 all over Belgium⬇️
September 9th: Sjruur, Maaseik
October 24th: Entr (De Centrale), Gent
January 14th: Jazzy Sunday (Leietheater), Deinze
January 19th: Cinéma Le Parc (Les Grignoux), Luik (Liège)
ArtistCongratz 