#kate ryan

Recline - Kate Ryan

British , b. 1958 -

More Belgium. They are having a lot of entries this year. This time it's the actual winner. Kate Ryan, another of the 2006 VRT girlbops and perhaps the one that punctured the girlbop balloon at Eurovision.

Kate (real name Katrien Verbeeck) has been having ever increasing success for the past four years. Singles and an album have hit the charts, not just in Belgium but across Europe. Her breakthrough was a debut cover of Disenchantée, but she followed that up with original compositions and even managed to get into the US Billboard dance chart with a cover of The Promise You Made by Cock Robin. Kate was a solid choice for Belgium. She could sing this material live, she looked good, she was relatively well-known.

Je t'adore is more of the same. It's Europop, filled with energy but at the same time harkening back to Eurovision past. Rather than ethno elements, it substitutes more Western pop and maybe that's where it went wrong. Somehow it doesn't feel hugely fresh. It fits the Eurovision template almost too perfectly.

It's not as if Belgium weren't really going for it here. It does manage to incorporate new staging elements including the illuminated microphone stands used as choreographic elements, that make it stand out from other fare. There's some rare pyro for 2006. Kate dances as she sings, hitting marks in way that most of the other entries don't have to. The routine is complex enough for it to be relatively hard to pull off perfectly.

Then there are the mistakes. Not only the camera cutting mishap, although I don't think there's ever been a Eurovision entry with a mistake originating from the mixing desk that has done well. The routine isn't quite polished enough and those microphone stands look like they're going to topple over in places, the lines they form aren't perfectly rectilinear.

After having won every stage of Eurosong '06 easily, Kate managed to finish only twelfth in the Eurovision semi-final and didn't get through to the Grand Final. It was only seven points off qualification, but that's not enough. It got points from lots of countries, but nothing higher than a seven. There were two many other different exciting things to vote for.

It was still a shock to many, the easy qualifier that failed, and a sign that if you wanted to do well with a girlbop now, it was going to have to be something extra. We'd seen it all before.

The good news is that this was only a minor blip in Kate's career. She went on to release something in the region of thirty singles, seven albums, had huge numbers of top ten songs in the Benelux countries and collaborated with Avicii among others.

One of the founder countries. The 00’s decade wasn’t their best moment at Eurovision (though they got a second place in 2003), but since then their entries and results have improved a lot.

-Rhythm inside, Loïc Nottet (2015)

The best Belgian entry for many people and one of the best of recent years. A song full of rhythm (XD) and catchy. The choreography designed by Loïc himself has divided opinions since the first time we saw it. Top 2.

-Wake up, Eliot (2019)

A beautiful and moving song, with powerful chorus. Sadly, Eliot voice wasn’t good that night and the staging didn’t work. But it’s still a notable entry and it deserve more recognition.

-Je t’adore, Kate Ryan (2006)

Kate Ryan was a famous singer before her participation in Eurovision at 2006. She was one of the favourites to the victory, the song was pretty Eurovision-type and the staging fashionable in the 00’s. So everybody were shocked when she didn’t got a place in the final. It’s not clear what happened. Btw during the live performance realization included a shot from the backstage by error.  

-Me and my guitar, Tom Dice (2010)

After some years without getting a place in the final, Tom appeared with his guitar and got a top 6. The nice song with beautiful lyrics was a breath of fresh air in a contest full of too colourful and dance songs.

-City lights, Blanche (2016)

My favourite entry from this country. I think this song dark and mysterious is pure magic and elegance. Blanche was a little nervous during the performance, but I don’t care. She got top 4.