One of the last but certainly not the least showcases we witnessed at ESNS back in January was the gig of twins Jírí & Ondrej from Czech Republic 🇨🇿 aka Bratrí. An impressive immersive experience awaited.
See for yourselves…unfortunately this blog is not (yet) fourdimensional, otherwise we would treat you as well to the mint flavours 🍵and the appetizers 🥗 in the second and the third below ⤵️
🎧🎶How an audience can have a blast 💥🔛 the coziest dancefloor 🪩 👯♂️
No Belgian Music Week without Flanders Music Industry Awards 🇧🇪
I assure you, ArtistCongratz does not have one of these 🔮 to predict awardwinners…🤔💭Although our “hunches” rarely turn out to be deceiving;). Just two weeks ago we managed to have three time winner Sylvie Kreusch in front of our mic at ESNS Groningen. She confided in ArtistCongratz that her spending hours at her granny’s addic amidst tons of books might have something to do with the birth of her album Comic Trip 🦸🏻♀️🎶
Sylvie Kreusch sure knows how to pass a “contest” with flying colours 🇧🇪 she is on the verge of her international tour across Europe. Check tourdates: https://www.sylviekreusch.com/tour pics by Jokke (VRT)
K Choaw wham bam💥, Cheers 🍸and Congratz 👏to leading ladies Sylvie Kreusch, Pommelien Thys & Eefje De Visser.
No less than 7️⃣🏆 in total here, GirlPowered by Sylvie Kreusch & Pommelien Thys 🎤💃🩰Not to mention this young gentleman Maksim, thanking first and foremost his grandmother aka Babooshka ❤️ after winning this year’s Breakthrough-MIA 👏 His duet with Hannah Mae might be in Dutch but sounds beyond international⤵️
Despite the title “Ik wil dat je liegt”/ “Need you to lie” turns out to be such a thruthful song to so many 🎶 Maksim also beautifully performed the song live in Dutch and English at tv awardsshow De Kastaars with singer Barbara DexAnd the equally enchanting Berre who wins best Album happens to live in our neighborhood. Make sure to check our previous ESNS post for upclose and personal live footage 🎶
Let’s move on to the somewhat little less gentlemen Average Rob among others. They manage to create a new Belgian Anthem I will not deprive you from⤵️
Our newest Belgian Anthem🎶🙌😎 by these two “playful scoundrels”, infamous YouTubers Omdat Het Kan & Average Rob, performed live at the Awards & preferably to be consumed with Belgian fries, yes they are Belgian, 🇧🇪 the fries 😉🥔🍟🔥☄️
Absolute GOAT of the MIAs (Music Industry Awards) remains Stromae with a stunning number of 20 but QueenPommelien and her 12 statues now share the runner up position with international Belgian artists Angèle and Milow. Congratz 👸🏼👏
ArtistCongratz 🙌
Interviewing Stromae @ The Mia’s in 2011 🎶
This MIA-edition, Pommelien, who is immensely popular with the youngest youngsters, cashed in 4 of her 7 nominations. She wins in the audience categories ‘Dutch-song’, ‘Pop’ and ‘Solo artist’. With ‘Het beste moet nog komen (The Best is Yet to Come) she also has the ‘Hit of the year 2024’ up for grabs. During the MIAs 2022 she won 3 awards and last year 5. Including this year’s 4, she has collected a total of 12 MIAs. Impressive to say the least.
And how about the well deserved reward of A Live Experience with Capital L from Brutus, extra Congratz & All Round Applause to Stefanie, Peter & Stijn please 👏🎸🥁🎶 AC had the opportunity to interview the band in Bruges back in 2023⤵️
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for… Happy Belgian Music Week 🎶🇧🇪!
Marta Da’Ro & audience in full stage trance
In our previous post we gave you a sneak peek of what drives sixtime Awardnominee Sylvie Kreusch but at the same time we witnessed more young music talent from Belgium live at ESNS ⤵️
ArtistCongratz is delighted to share live ESNS-showcase footage with you from
Marta Da’ro, Berre and Colt⬇️🎶
Marta Da’ro immediately sets the tone at the start of her showcase The energy and charisma of Colt as a unique duo is undeniableColt view by Boomerang 🙌👏For Berre, It all started by sharing his songs on TikTok, until his talent got noticed by major recordcompany Universal 🙌
It was great to see hope and perseverance translated into music by so many talented youngsters from all over Europe at this year’s EuroSonicNoorderslag in Groningen🇳🇱 🎼🇪🇺
Stay posted for “Twins Peaking” from Czech Republic 🇨🇿 in the Netherlands at Het Paleis Groningen. Artists & twinbrothers Jiri and Ondrej were interviewed by ArtistCongratz once before. It became a joyful reunion beyond their immersive experience frontstage filling a typical Brátrí’s dancefloor. Mint flavor fumes on top of the beats included.
But first things first let’s have a closer look on some Belgians B(l)ooming at ESNS 🇧🇪🎵
With Belgian music week 🇧🇪🎶just around the corner it was a pleasure to witness the latest generation of our music scene live, first hand. Featuring among others (we will surely see in the future): the energetic duo Colt, the enchanting Berre, the captivating Marta Da’ro and of course a vision in blue and multiple Belgian Music Industry Awardnominee Sylvie Kreusch ⤵️ 🎤
Sylvie Kreusch, an Audio-vision in blue 🎶 at Oosterpoort Groningen on Thursdaynight January 15-16th
Her hopeful high notes and lyrics are often inspired by her own experiences, she told ArtistCongratz.
And about a decade after performing here with her first band Soldiers Heart she nailed it again with a stunning solo performance at Oosterpoort Groningen and an extra showcase at the iconic recordstore PlatoSonic.
Sylvie Kreusch: Hard to believe that I first played @ ESNS about ten years ago, Time flies!
AC: Your newest album takes us on a Comic Trip 💥, literally. This being reminiscent to the world of comic heroes, were you inspired by them🦸🏻♀️?
Sylvie Kreusch: Actually not really no. My music is mostly inspired by my own life. Kind of 🙂 But during my childhood I spent a lot of time in my grandmother’s addic, where she happened to have a lot of comics 📚stored. I spent a lot of hours reading there, with my head in the clouds, literally.
Along those clouds 💭Sylvie takes you anywhere …on a Comic Trip like this one: once upon a time in her very own wild wild west💥
Another song of Sylvie is becoming an anthem beyond borders. Performing it live at ESNS while connecting with the audience in her own unique way proved once again that “Walk, walk” already is an evergreen.
AC: “Walk walk” seems to have a healing effect on a lot of people…
It is a hopeful song. And kind of therapeutic isn’t it ? I guess all of us can relate to those moments when we are razed to the ground. And then we build ourselves back 🆙
Sylvie Kreusch 🔛 “Walk, baby, walk🎶”
What better venue to treat the audience to an extra private showcase than this iconic recordstore called PlatoSonic in Groningen 🎤🙌
Comic Trip (down memorylane 💽 also available on vinyl)
💽💽💽💽💽💽💽💽💽💽💽 Congratz Sylvie & Cie !
Stay tuned for more ESNS-tales ! Coming 🆙 footage of Marta Da’ro, Berre, Colt & Brátrí
Breaking News from ESNS 📰 “ArtistCongratz” to the winners and nominees of the 2025 edition of the Music Moves Europe Awards !🙌 Glenn Micallef – EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport handed the MME Public Choice Award 2025 to Judeline from Spain🇪🇸🎶 and stated: “Music breaks barriers and brings people together. It composes the soundtrack of our lives, I am so proud to witness such a variety of sheer talent, bringing the promise of a bright future for the European music scene.” Judeline also won an MME Award 2025 together with Kingfishr from Ireland, Naomi Sharon from Netherlands, Night Tapes from Estonia and Uche Yara from Austria.
The prestigious MME Grand Jury Award (the red one ❤️) was presented to Yamê from France.Member of the Grand Jury Jess Iszatt from BBC handing over this coveted award to Yame 🇫🇷Host Shay Kreuger (r) interviewing Uche Yara from Austria 🇦🇹
“Empowerment through vulnerability” it was a well received quote and message from Groningen 🇳🇱across Europe 🇪🇺 to the world 🌍, emphasized by this year’s vivid, smooth and colorful presenter Shay Kreuger at the Music Moves Europe Awards ceremony during ESNS.
A powerful message to a changing world. One to spread, cherish, create and live by 🖼️ , beyond the annual epicenter of the European Live music industry.
What better way than to disclose this call of faith through 🆕 music ?
By encouraging emerging talent from all over Europe, granting them well deserved awards and 40 minute gigs to show their creations to bookers across Europe. This week was showtime at EuroSonicNoorderslag in Groningen.
Yours truly at the entrance of Groningen’s citytheatre, traditional venue of the MME Awards 🏆 “Let music move Europe and all of us forward 🎶 “
The MME Awards 2025 welcomed a renewed independent jury, including; Jess Iszatt (BBC Introducing), Filip Košťálek (Festival Colours of Ostrava), Kenza Naaimi – El Fezzazi (FIP), Annika Walsh (Spotify). In addition, each year the MME Public Choice Award winner of the previous year joins the jury. This year this seat is taken by Zaho de Sagazan from France.
STAY TUNED for more ESNS highlights, next Artists to Congratz in line are the amazing twinband Bratrí from Czech Republic 🇨🇿 & of course the ones in my Belgium Booms-special🇧🇪. Coming 🆙
Except for the exquisite World soundtracks of course. This year’s Filmfest Ghent hit another home run in many ways.
Welcoming international talent in, whilst showing all kinds of audiences what we have to offer when it comes to absolute must sees in cinema’s worldwide. From Julie Keeps Quiet, Small Things Like These to Milano or The Weeping Walk.
Or BXL, winning the audience award in Ghent; wearing the signature consonants of our capital with pride. Also on our go see list: L’Amour Ouf, Les Femmes Au Balcon, A Beautiful Imperfection, Ana + Yek etc.
Lots of new work to explore, both by viewers and dedicated filmmakers developing their way in cinema.
Congratz are in order ⤵️⤵️⤵️⤵️
🎬👏to a true pride and joy 🇧🇪in international filmindustry: Tim Mielants for making Small Things Like These, based upon the historic fiction novel by Claire Keegan. Lifting the taboo of distressing conditions in the infamous “Magdalene Laundries”
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy plays Bill Furlong, a coal merchant in 1985 in New Ross, Ireland. When he was born, his mother was an unmarried teenager, ostracised by her family but permitted to continue working respectably as a maid by her kind-hearted employer. Now a financially independent adult, Bill prepares for the approaching Christmas with his wife and five daughters.
While delivering coal to the local convent, he begins to suspect that their supposed training school for girls is, in fact a cruel “Magdalene Laundry”…
🎬👏 to Dimitri Verhulst, iconic author of many classic novels📚for bringing his skills and talent to the big screen for the very first time. The seventh artform clearly suits him too. Resulting in The Weeping Walk (Waarom Wettelen), a quest following…a funeral through Flanders mysterious ways…
Fragment “The Weeping Walk” (c) Toon Aerts
🎬👏 to Leonardo Van Dijl, directing “Julie keeps quiet”, in the running for the longlist of Oscar contenders. One of those stories that needed to be “told while remaining untold”. A talented female tennis player chooses to remain silent while coping with abusive behaviour of a former trainer. Her environment being ok with the silence granting her time to heal…🎾👟
🎬👏 to Christina Vandekerckhove, director of documentaries capturing human nature often in underprivileged environments. Stories from generations of unfortunate families she encountered while making “Rabot” partly inspired Christina for her first fiction film “Milano”.
Fragment “Milano” by Christina Vandekerckhove (c) Lumière
The first Belgian film featuring a deaf actor captures the struggles of a young deaf boy called Milano (named after his fathers favourite soccerteam AC Milan⚽️), who is curious to find out more about his biological mother who abandoned him as a baby. His whereabouts are reluctantly witnessed by his also struggling but none the less protective and loving father (Matteo Simoni).
ArtistCongratz had an interesting talk with Christina about the making of Milano at Filmfest Ghent right before presenting the film in Rome 🇮🇹
AC: Milano contains a lot of close up shots…
Christina: Yes, I wanted this very different approach in filming. While the camera often remains static in Rabot, in here I wanted the camera amidst all action. A bit more rough and gritty as well.
Through Milano I want to show the immense powerlessness people can face in sometimes extreme situations. Not being able to communicate or express emotions like guilt and simply not being able to say sorry… But also the unwavering loyalty this child has towards both parents…
Christina Vandekerckhove
The director alongside her debuting starring actor Basil Wheatley at the première of the film last week at Filmfest Ghent. Christina: When Basil came in at the castings, I instantly knew that he was my Milano. I wanted a very different approach in filming. While the camera often remains static in Rabot, for Milano I wanted the camera amidst all action. A bit more rough and gritty as well.Thank you Christina for the inspiring talk about Milano, (our entire interview is available on podcast (Dutch)) https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bernard-bosch1/episodes/Tania-en-Christina-Vandekerckhove-e2pnbcf
Now and then ArtistCongratz likes a colorful refreshing trip down memory lane. Preferably on crossroads where different music generations inspire each other.
This actual refresh of an extra colorful iconic Antwerp based band from the seventies embodies such a vibe like no other could.
As yours truly their driving force today, Björn Eriksson jr., also happened to be a toddler in the seventies. Back then, his father Karl Eriksson, the original guitar player, pulled his strings alongside Gowie Meeusen, Ben Bervoets, Bo Spaenc and Gene Bervoets. Their In your face punk would turn out to be legendary.
Discover stories featuring two generations of Plastik Bags, chatting with both Gene and Björn.
Gene: Björn did all the remastering. It’s his project now actually…but I can only guess what he experienced as a toddler listening to us (laughs).
Björn: Although I have a great beard myself now, (Gene laughs) My father looks younger than I do. (Laughs)
“Teaming up with some Plastik Bags”
Björn: I can still remember seeing some concerts as a small child. The original bandmembers definitely had some fascination for plastic bags. They used to dress up in them, that’s all I can remember. I think there was this roadie, a good friend, who came up with the idea to hang a couple of 💯 plastic bags on the ceiling during the concerts.
Gene: We all wore them at the time.
AC: You’d have to have model like features to show them off…
Gene: Not all of us do I guess (laughs)
AC: Ageless music and charisma could also do the trick 😉 Do all ages come to the concerts nowadays ?
Björn: We did a release concert of the new album in Antwerp. For a lot of old fans of course but also very young people really seem to like it.
Gene: There is some kind of punk revival going on at the moment…it appeals to young people because there is a lot of energy in it. When I listen to the radio, I hear a lot of “low profile music”, while punk is really “in your face”.
I think that youngsters are surprised that older people also used to think that people in their fifties or sixties were practically not able to walk anymore 😉
That’s actually the spirit of the Plastic Bags pioneers: We’re still in our twenties 🙂
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 :))
And cut 🎙️🎬
UPDATE July 30’s Breaking news, 12 years after ‘Death of a shadow’ won it’s oscar qualifier at L.A. Shorts International Film Festival, Toms new film ‘Hearts of Stone’ wins best international short and now will be qualified to enter the longlist of the academy awards once again! This calls for extra special Congratz !!!! 🏅👏🙌
ArtistCongratz 