Belgium: The winner of The Voice Belgium, Jérémie Makiese, interested in a Eurovision participation

Monday, 07 June 2021

• The winner of 9th season of The Voice Belgium, Jérémie Makiese, has expressed interest in participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 representing Belgium. 

  The yound talented act that won this year's Belgic edition of The Voice, coached by  singer-songwriter B.J. Scott had entered the show performing in his blind audition  Labrinth’s song 'Jealous'. Following that performance the 20 year old singer from Berchem delivered amazing performance all the way to the final show which eventually won. 

  Interviewed by the local news website La Meuse, Makiese, stated about his future plans: 

  "Besides the single, my other project is Eurovision. It would be a complete honour to represent my country next year."

  Makiese see a potential Eurovision 2022 participation as something within his wishes and target, a fact that to a point could be explained by the fact that around in his Voice journey have been Eurovision related people. Jérémie’s coach, B.J. Scott, co-wrote “Rhythm Inside” with Nottet for the contest while the Loic Nottet himself is one of the current Voice coaches. 

   

  A fews words for Jérémie

  Jérémie is 20 years old and originally hails from Berchem. He currently studies geology and enjoys playing football as he is playing with for D3 Amateur team Wallonia Walhain..

  He took part in The Voice Belgique this year, the Walloon version of The Voice, being part of Beverly Jo Scott’s team.During his blind audition, all four coaches turned around for him. Throughout his participation on the talent show he delivered several songs including James Arthur’s “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You” and Bruno Mars & Anderson Paak’s “Leave The Door Open”. As singer his style is close to soul and RnB music and he likes to sing in both French and English.

  He won the competition with an impressive 53% of the public vote leaving second as runner up Alice Van Eesbeeck. Watch below deliver in the final a captivating performance of the song that he started his whole journey in the competition: 

   

   

  Belgium in Eurovision 

  Belgium is one of the countries to have participated in the Eurovision SOng Contest since its first edition back in 1956. After 30 years the country achieves to win the contest in 1986 with the 13 yo Sandra Kim and her entry “J’aime la vie“.

  The country has finished last in the contest 8 times while in two of these occasions didn’t receive any point at all. In 2003 with the group Urban Trad and their song “Sanomi” it almost reached its second victory finishing in the 2nd place, only two points behind Turkey and Sertab Erener with her entry “Every way that I can“.

  Although the country has managed to qualify to the final 5 times the last decade, with Loïc Nottet in 2015 and Blanche in 2017 achieving the best results coming 4th in the final, the last two years it hasn’t been that story.  In 2018 with  Sennek and “A matter of time” , failed to reach the final although the juries ranked her 9th in her semi final. In 2019 internally selected  Eliot represented the country in Tel Aviv with his song “Wake up” which failed to reach the grand final.

  Last year Hooverphonic were internally selected to perform "Release Me" in Rotterdam. Following the cancellation of the contest by EBU due to the coronavirus pandemic, a consultation between the VRT, the French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF and Hooverphonic led to VRT announcing that the band will represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. RTBF considered it a logical decision to offer Hooverphonic and the VRT this opportunity and postponed their turn for participation for a year until 2022.

  Hooverphonic represented the country in Rotterdam with their song 'The Wrong Place" and after qualifying from the 1st semi final show the finished 19th in the final with an overall total of 74 points. 

   

  News Source: ESCXtra

  Image: RTBF.be