The
Spin
Belgium's participants in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest
is a group called Ishtar, named after the Babylonian goddess of love.
It is an ensemble of ten, but only six members will be on stage during
the performance of their Eurovision entry: lead singer and mezzo-soprano
Soetkin Baptist, composer and guitar player Michel Vangheluwe and the
siblings Ann, Marleen, Els and Hans Vandaele.
Ishtar exists since 2003 and released a first CD, called Troubamour, in
2005. The album contains adaptations of medieval European love songs in
several European languages, amongst them Icelandic, Dutch, Greek, Romanian,
Bulgarian, Estonian and Serbian. All vocal and musical arrangements are
based on authentic medieval music sheets dating as early as from the 11th
century. A second album will be released later this year.
Next to European love songs, they write and perform songs in non-existing
languages. One of these songs brought victory to Ishtar, when they won
the Belgian Eurovision finals on 9th March in Brussels. The televoting
audience immediately fell in love with O Julissi . Singing in an imaginary
language seems to be a successful formula for Belgium: folk group Urban
Trad earned second place with Sanomi in the 2003 Eurovision edition.
Even though the words and lyrics of Belgium's song don't have a clear
meaning, there do is an idea behind the song. Composer Michel Vangheluwe
describes O Julissi as a piece of music about a child enjoying a walk
through a fairytale forest, meeting and greeting lots of beautiful and
nice things, but also a few evil ones. With this song, Ishtar is aiming
for Europe to be filled with joy, optimism and a warm feeling of happiness
for at least three minutes. Eurovision viewers, be prepared! |