Awards – ArtistCongratz

Magic moments @ the MIA’s

Published on 25 January 202426 January 2024 by tania_gh_ramLeave a comment

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)

𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝙚𝙭𝙩𝙧𝙖 𝘀𝗻𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘇-𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘇 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘆 🎶📸

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 🎶

Brussels 🎤calling 🎵 awardshower launches Belgian music week🤘

Published on 27 January 202327 January 2023 by tania_gh_ramLeave a comment

What better way to launch our Belgian music week than with a sparkling shower of awards. Including dazzling music performances, « Made in Belgium »

You know what they say, tiny country, huge…talent 😉

Mia’s, short for Music Industry Awards, are our very own Belgian Grammy’s 💿, set up by our national tv-channel VRT and vi.be, Flanders guiding professional platform promoting rising artists. Place to be: Palace 12, just around the corner of our national pride The Atomium.

Artist Max Colombie aka Oscar and the Wolf gave a stunning performance on “🔝 of our national pride”’to kick off the Awardsceremony

On 🔝Oscar and the Wolf

Let’s have a closer look at those winners present, on the rise and confirming internationally. Kicking off by a rising star worldwide. On our watch as well as none other then Dave Grohls. Meet Stefanie Mannaerts ⬇️🥁

Stefanie just won her first MIA (musician) yesterday. Next Friday her band Brutus will play in a sold out legendary Brussels music temple Ancienne Belgique.
Paris, Pink Pop, Pukkelpop and Daytona festival are just a few other roaring venues welcoming Stefanie and her band Brutus next. With drums and vocals sounding like a match made in shoegaze-heaven, ArtistCongratz can’t wait to discover “The Brutus Live Experience.” Nice to know: music runs in Stefanies family, her father Walter being a well known composer and her grandfather Leo is the writer of an anthem called…E Viva España.

Fancy blue suit by the way Stefanie, by all means reveal us your stylist;)

But we saw more than one vision in blue this year. Dressed like an Indigo queen, Charlotte Adigéry set fire to her mic and the stage alongside her partner-in-rhyme, Boris Pupul.

Haha 🙃 Strike a pose
with a vibelike most groovy duo: Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul. Meeting each other back in 2016 through their work 🎵 for a cultfilm named Belgica, this Ghent based formation manages to transform pure irony into music. As well as many other feelings we all can relate to. Their list of quirky tracks is getting longer and longer. “Thank you, nonono thank youou ;-)” Ceci n’ést pas un cliché indeed 🎵 More high lights coming up after this years Mia’s for best art work (Topical Dancer) and producer (along David and Stephen Dewaele)

Selfie by Pauline Slangen 🤳😊

Meet the one and only Real Regi, who wins the Mia for “best Dance”,
the muse, on the left;) is vocalist Pauline Slangen, discovered in Regi’s own talent hunt “Regi Academy »

Regi’s music touch has been around for decades now and still continues to influence generations 🎵

Now this is an icon you all must know. Leading Lady of Vaya Con Dios, recall Just a Friend of Mine, Heading For a Fall, Puerto Rico, and so many more hits worldwide. Dani Klein was handed a well deserved Lifetime Achievement Award. In her Thank you speech she did not forget her two legendary founding co members Dirk Schoufs and Willy Willy🎸

And then there’s this adorable border breaking artist of course. All maestro’s, please make way for Stromae! He now holds the record with 20(!) Mia’s

Twenty Mia’s and counting…

“ArtistCongratz to all winners, nominees and performers 👏” pics Een, by Jokko

Drafts, crafts & awards ✍️

Published on 16 October 202213 February 2023 by tania_gh_ramLeave a comment

From motion pictures to graphic novels and comics, it’s not even such a giant step. Stories are told in many ways. ArtistCongratz likes to hop on and off different art forms anyway.

But always with the same goal, lifting national gems beyond Belgian borders, welcoming internationals inside.

Station of the day is Breda, The Netherlands 🇳🇱, just across the Belgian border. Breda is the Hometown of a huge Festival of Comic books and therefor a perfect gathering of some of the finest draftsmen/craftsmen of our low lands.

Scroll through our Special Photogallery with awardwinning artists and their backgroundstories. Congratz to all of them! They will want you to discover more. Guaranteed.

ArtistCongratz to Joris Mertens! And the prettiest prize, this work of art by last year’s winner Judith Vanistendael 👌
Joris’ second graphic novel “Bleekwater” is now labeled “best comic 2022”

This gem on paper (available in Dutch and in French, English might follow) just won the prize named after Willy Vandersteen, spiritual father of the iconic Belgian comic “ Suske & Wiske”

Mertens’ first book “Beatrice” also was awarded. Both books are published by Oogachtend, Belgian publishing house with finesse for this genre 📖📚

Young talent in the making can never be awarded too early.

Special Congratz for Joris from Chris Vandersteen, daughter of the late comic icon, which the prize is named after

Could’nt resist a Selfie with Spider-Man”

Nice reunion with former awardwinners Gerben Valkema and Eric Hercules, they won the prize a few years ago in Antwerp with their comic “Elsje”, she’s one fierce little lady making history to discover 👍⤵️

“Lucky me, Last in line”, to get a personalized “Elsje” 🍀

📚

Making a little comic of my own, featuring Gerben Valkema & Eric Hercules 💭💬🎈#cameoforthewriters ✌️🤘☝️#always

Lifetimes of rhymes🎼 call for a hall of fame🎼⬇️

Published on 26 May 202228 May 2022 by tania_gh_ramLeave a comment

Awardseason never sleeps!!

While our finest filmfruit is being presented in Cannes as we blog;-), these music icons 🇧🇪 are shining along our own sunny seaside.

The particular Hall of Fame (Eregalerij) we are referring to may be local but the songs within AND their creators reach WAY beyond Belgian borders.

ArtistCongratz gladly adds some more international spotlight to our radionetworks tribute this week at Kursaal Ostend. A scintillating music gala, long overdue because of obvious reasons, finally could celebrate 🎶legends as our soul and popsensation Soulsister and soundwizard Wouter Van Belle.

On top of that two iconic songs are being included in the hall of fame.

Enjoy a zoom with a view, quite the sound and one or two backgroundstories…