THE BELGIAN PRESELECTION 2004

FIRST SELECTION
Sunday 18 January 2004

PARTICIPANTS:

1. YANAH - "Yes or no"
   (text: Eric Geurts - music: Nathalie Vangronsvelt & Eric Geurts)

   Yanah is the artistname of Nathalie Vangronsvelt.  This sing-a-song writer is born on July 12th of 1978.  Her career starts in the summer of 2001 when she met producer "E-Rick" Geurts. Her first full cd "The Girl in the Picture" will be relaesed at the start of 2004.  Yanah loves to sing and to perform, and not only her own songs.  She plays guitar, piano, djembe, didgeridoo, flute & a bit of drums and violin.  And she composes her own songs on guitar & piano.  The ambitions of Yanah are ; simply being happy and making her dreams come true (artistically & professionally) and compose music, elaborate her skills on different instruments, sing, do concerts and bring out her first CD-record.

2. CHRIS D. MORTON - "Every dead soldier"
   (text: Chris D. Morton & Dick B. Morton - Music: Chris D. Morton, Dick B. Morton & Alain Croisy)

   Chris D.Morten is born in Gent on June 11th 1978. During 18 years he has been living in South Africa with his father.  Its was his father who learned him to sing.  In 1999 he wins the "Flanders Songfestival" together with his father.  His first single "Cecillia" become the hittip in 1999 at Radio 2. And in 2003 he ends fifth in the televisionprogram "Idool 2003". He writes his own songs and sings in English and in Flemish.  His participation at Eurosong 2004 can give him the opportunity to extend his international carreer.

3. DE EGELS - "Maria Maria Maria"
   (text & music: Thomas Selis)

   In 1990 five peoples decides to set up a group called 'De Egels'.  Those five people are Thomas Selis (08/07/1973 - Sang/bas), Johan Schokkaert (13/05/1969 - drums), Jean-Pierre Van Kerckhove (02/09/1973 - sang/guitar), Bart Vercruyssen (14/08/1974 - sang/guitar) and Stefan Van Guyse (19/05/1975 - keyboard).  They have already been on several festivals as Waasland, Beverse Feesten, Sint-Niklase feesten,....  In 2000 they participated at Humo's Rock Rally and in 2002 they ended fourth at Nekka-Nacht.

4. KATIA BERLINGIERI - "Don't be scared"
   (text: Katia Berlingieri - music: Wim Claes)

   Katia Berlingieri comes from Oudergem and she's 19 years old (Born on december 8th 1984). She's a value at the Festival of the Italian Song, in 1999 she ended fourth.  In 2001 and 2002 she won the Festival of the Italian song with an selfmade song.  Her name has been seen in several songcontests.  Her dream is to sing at the sportpalace in Antwerp and to be the second Sandra Kim who wins the ESC for Belgium.

5. XANDEE - "1 Life"
   (text : Dirk Paelinck - music: Marc Paelinck)

   Xandee is the artistname of Sandy Boets. She born on december 18th 1978 and comes from Tienen.  As teenager she started her career together with Sergio Quisquater.  They formed 'Touch of Joy' and had a lot of succes.  After some time of rest the group was formed again in the summer of 2003.  Near her performance with 'Touch of joy' she also workes on her own singing career as Sandy.

6. STORM - "Jij"
   (text & music: Niels Megens & M. Flamman)

   Gertjan Heuvelmans is born on Mai 8th of 1970 in Eindhoven and is better known in the musicworld als G-Jay.  Since December the 1ste he lives in Antwerpen.  At the conservatorium of Utrecht he has been following soft music and singing.  Gertjan followed acting-, singing- and dancing lessons and already worked at a lot of musical-productions in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.  He has been participating twice at the Dutch national final.  In 1995 as a solo-artist and in 2003 as member of 'The Mango Nuts'.

7. NICOLE & HUGO - "Love is all around"
   (text & music: Miguel Wiels, Alain Vande Putte & Peter Gillis)

   Nicole's, real name is Nicole Van Palm, born on 21th October 1946 in Wemmel.  After taking lessons in singing, dancing, diction and theatre and being a dancer at the Alhamsbraschouwburg, Folies Bergères and Ancienne Belgique in Brussels in-between, Nicole thought in 1961 that the time for the stage had come in 1961.  She recorded records, participated in a song contest in Italy and did a tour.  Nicole had her first TV-appearance in the musical "No no Nanette" where she played the main role.  Later, she made a tour in Austria and in 1968, she was part of the winning Belgian team of the Europacup in Knokke. She represented Belgium in the Sopot songcontest in Poland.  Hugo's, real name is Hugo Verbraeken, born on the 10th of November 1947 in Kinshasa.  After taking singing lessons, Hugo became an actor at the "National Theatre" and at the Youth Theatre in Antwerp and he also got diplomas in phonetics, diction, and kinetics and in the history of theatre.  He did his military service and performed before soldiers.  Nicole and Hugo met each other in 1970 during a TV-show and in 1971, they won the Belgian final for the ESC in Dublin.   But like we wrote in 1971, Nicole gets the jaundice and they were replaced by Jacques Raymond and Lilly Castel.  On December 1st, 1971, Nicole and Hugo married in Wemmel.  During the Yes-Festival in August 1972, they ended up 2nd. In the same year, they came 5th at the Sopot songcontest and they were guests at the 'Gouden Zeezwaluw' ('Golden Seeswallow') in Knokke.  Now there still performing songs on Australian cruise ships.

   THE RESULTS

   Artists/Jury Professional Jury (*) Radio 2 Radio Donna Euro-Jury Televoting TV1-Jury TOTAL PLACE Yanah 2 4 4 3 4 17 5 Chris D. Morton 5 3 5 5 10 28 3 De Egels 1 2 3 1 6 13 7 Katia Berlingieri 3 5 2 7 8 25 4 Xandee 9 9 9 9 9 54 1 Storm 4 1 7 2 2 16 6 Nicole & Hugo 7 7 1 4 14 33 2

   (*) Professional jury contains: Dana Winner, André Vermeulen, Marcel Van Thilt and Serge Simonart.