Belgium's Blanche sets her sights on Eurovision success

When she steps onto the stage in Kiev next month, 17-year-old Ellie Delvaux will have millions of spectators around the world watching her every move – but for added courage she need only think of Sandra Kim.

In 1986, the mullet-sporting teen won top honours for Belgium with her upbeat pop song ‘J’aime la vie’. It was the only time that the country has come first in the history of the competition. “What inspires me the most about her is that she was just 13,” says Delvaux. “She was so at ease, laughing and dancing. I’m 17 and frankly need to be at the top of my game.”

While Kim was of a different generation, her high-octane pop a sharp contrast to Delvaux’s more sultry electro sound, the latter admires the way Kim’s song stuck in the public imagination. “Everyone knows lines from it, everyone knows her name. It’s all about having a song that gets into people’s heads, and the fact people remember hers decades later is truly impressive.”

Stepping into the limelight

Delvaux’s route to Eurovision began with a stint on season five of reality TV show The Voice Belgique (Belgium’s 2015 Eurovision entrant, Loïc Nottet, also started out on the programme). While she didn’t make the final, her voice coach put her in touch with esteemed Brussels label PIAS, and through that she wound up collaborating with Pierre Dumoulin of indie-pop band Roscoe.

“He didn’t so much alter my path as put me on one,” she reflects. “When I did The Voice, I thought it would be a fantastic experience, but that after I would just take a breather and resume my normal life” (she’s still in high-school).

It was Dumoulin’s track ‘City Lights’ that was internally selected by Walloon broadcaster RBTF as Belgium’s entry for this year’s Eurovision (RBTF alternates honours with Flemish broadcaster VRT). “I think the force of it was that it wasn’t written for Eurovision at all,” explains Delvaux. “It wasn’t even an option. We were collaborating, and the song was for a single or an album.”

The track – which Delvaux considers an unsentimental love song, charting the uncertain beginnings of a new relationship – is certainly a far cry from the folkloric spectacles and throwaway kitsch the contest is associated with. Days after its release this month, bookies had it as second favourite to win.

Doing it for Belgium

Delvaux says that, like many Belgians, she wasn’t really a Eurovision fan, but that the contest had broadened its horizons of late. “In the past few years you see more and more modern songs. It’s great, because it’s the perfect time for young singers. After the nationalistic numbers there are a lot which are rather different from the typical Eurovision and that’s where my song fits in.”

While her memorably husky voice will certainly stand her in good stead for the upcoming competition, she’s aware that there’s still a lot to be done. “I’m really going to need to work on the scenography because even if you’ve got a great song if you go on TV all rigid it’s not going to happen,” she says.

Her other major task: doing the diplomatic rounds necessary to persuade rival European countries to allot the song the much-desired douze points. “I’ll really need to make friends abroad – little interviews on the page Spanish newspapers devote to Eurovision, just showing myself outside of Belgium,” she says. “I’ll be going to the Eurovision pre-party in London, and also trying to get the song played on the radio in other countries. It’s about getting people to hear the song so they know it, like it, and vote.”

Although she’s excited just to have the experience of performing in Kiev – she’s particularly hoping to meet the other contestants – she’s in it to win. “I’ll be happy whatever, and if I make the final that’s extra,” she says. “But you should always aim high. In fact, I’m doing this for all of Belgium, and I think that all Belgium would be euphoric if I come first, so we will be first!”

Blanche will perform in Eurovision’s first semi-final on 9 May. The grand final is on 13 May.