A Few words about Hooverphonic

The Belgic band Hooverphonic was created in October 1995. Although initially it was known as a trip – hop band it quickly started to include alternative, electo, electro-pop and other sounds. The group started out as  Hoover, a name used by other groups too, and switch to the name Hooverphonic αφού in orde to avoid legal complications.

On October 10, 2008 the band’s leading vocalist , Geike Arnaert , announced that she will leave the group opting for a solo career. Hooverphonic’s last concert took place on December 13, 2008 at  Tele-Club in Ekaterinburg, Russia. This last concert was recorded by Russian MTV and was broadcast on Russian TV in 2009. In October 2010 Hooverphonic decided  Noémie Wolf as Geike’s successor, a choice that was officially announced during the De Laatste Show on VRT. However on March 26,2015 the group revealed that Noémie will leave the group. On April 2018 the band found its new leading vocalist, Luka Cruysberghs.

The group’s major hit was the song entitled Mad About You, which reached high chart positions in European Countries and Australia.

 

The Eurovision Story So Far

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.  Last year 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. 

In 2020 Hooverphonic were internally selected to represent the nation with their song Release me. The group never got to complete its Eurovision journey as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 outbreak. However the internationally acclaimed group will have a second chance in Eurovision 202i as the VRT announced 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.