Belgium: Geike Arnaert rejoins Hooverphonic replacing Luka Cruysberghs

Belgium: Geike Arnaert rejoins Hooverphonic replacing Luka Cruysberghs
Monday, 09 November 2020

  • Hooverphonic the group that will be representing Belgium at Eurovision 2021 in Rotterdam is going through a significant change in its formation, as former member Geike Arnaert is returning back on board replacing leading singer Luka Cruysberghs.

    Former Hooverphonic singer Geike Arnaert, who had left the group twelve years ago, will sing with the group in Rotterdam. The group confirms the return of Geike Arnaert is final and not a one-time-only event; Luka leaves the group. According to the press release : 

     ‘We saw each other. We started chatting. All three of us were eager to work together again, so we felt we had to do this. It is still the core Hooverphonic, which is synonymous with the band for many people. It’s that simple.’

    Geike Arnaert it feels like coming home and says : 

    ‘We wanted to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the record together’, the same press release states. ‘Just talking about it brought back many happy memories. It’s a strange sensation. I get back into it with great pleasure. I don’t know how the fans will react. But it really feels good for me. I’m going to put my own story in the songs again.’

    The group will be releasing a new version of their iconic hit Mad About You, which will go public at midnight, Tuesday 10 November.

     

    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.

     

    Belgium in Eurovision 

    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.  In 2018 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.

    This year Hooverphonic were to perform "Release Me" in Rotterdam.

    Following the cancellation of the contest by EBU due to the coronavirus crisis, a consultation between the VRT, the French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF and Hooverphonic leaded to VRT announcing 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.

    Source:Songfestival.be