search
date/time
Yorkshire Times
A Voice of the Free Press
frontpagebusinessartscarslifestylefamilytravelsportsscitechnaturefictionCartoons
Jeremy Williams-Chalmers
Arts Correspondent
@jeremydwilliams
6:00 AM 28th May 2020
arts

Interview With Blanche

 
In 2016, a 16 year old Ellie Delvaux auditioned for The Voice Belgique. While many artists eliminated in Week 2 of the live shows would now be just reality TV history, she went on to represent Belgium under the name Blanche at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017 with the still epic City Lights. The song became a huge viral hit, but Blanche was not in a hurry for immediate success. Instead, she has focused on building her sound and crafting a unique space in the overpopulated music industry. The decision was a wise one, for now aged just 20, she is seen as one of the most distinctive up and coming artists out there - a reputation normally not reserved for contestants of either show.

With her debut album, Empire, set for release tomorrow, we caught up with her to find out how she is feeling.

Hi, it has been a couple of years since the you made your international debut at the Eurovision Song Contest. Looking back, how do you feel about the experience?

It was a crazy experience, it’s still hard to realize that it was me up on that stage representing Belgium.. I learned a lot in a short amount of time. It opened me a lot of doors. The more the time pass and I’m evolving in my career, bigger is the smile on my face when I’m thinking about this experience.

Your song City Lights caught the attention of bloggers around the world, did you anticipate the response?

Not at all. I mean, I arrived out of nowhere, it was my first ever song, I honestly wasn’t expecting anything, I didn’t have the time to! It all happened so fast. I was positively surprised of course with the super enthusiastic answer..

Since then you have released a series of singles and really honed your sound. When it came to approaching the writing of your debut album, how was this all shaped by what came before?

Well the singles I wrote them at the same time as the album, some songs of the album I even wrote before. It’s just that while writing with the album in sight, there were some songs we were ready to already share with the public.

But I guess releasing the singles and seeing the response of my listeners, made me realize I was on the right track for the album.

Only half of your singles have made the final record, how did you decide what worked and what didn’t?

I didn’t really plan anything beforehand, I just wrote a lot of songs with a really open mind and a will of exploring.

The were a few steps in the choice of which song would go on the album. So we started with the thought that we would put the singles on the album.

First I made quite a large choice in the songs I wrote so far, with a lot of songs that were still just simple demos. I worked on each one to try and finish it, some songs I put aside cause I couldn’t see where it was going. At the end of this work I had 10 ‘new’ songs which was already a lot. I didn’t feel like letting any of these new songs behind. I really worked on them with the album in sight and I felt like they all belonged on the record. I didn’t want to have too many songs on the album, cause it’d give less space for each of the songs… So I made the decision of keeping the singles as "introductions" for the album and not have them in to leave space for the new ones!

Plus, we’re in an era where a song doesn’t disappear if you don’t put it on a CD, it’s all there on the platforms, forever a part of the story, still in the playlists, they will still show up on YouTube when you’ll listen to my new music, cause they have their own video; I think/hope..

If you had to describe the album, what one sentence would you use?

Experimentation of a 20 year old lucky girl trying to write her own kind of pop with a lot of amazing people!



Comparisons are inevitable in the this industry, what are the best and worst you have heard for yourself?

I had a lot of comparison with London Grammar about the voice, this is a good one!

I’ve never heard anything real bad honestly… let’s see with the album!

If you had to draw your own comparisons, who would you file yourself alongside?

I don’t like to compare myself but I really admire Lorde, she’s a big music inspiration.

The album is entitled Empire, how did you select the title?

I took it from the song ‘Empire’ that is somehow really representative of the whole album. It’s when we made the visuals that I started making all the links with this song and the other songs of the album. 'Cause we made visuals for all songs from the video clip of Empire.

Empire describes well the way the album was constructed, and what it is, what it includes.

Would you say you are building your own musical empire?

Yes I am, slowly, with the help of a lot of amazing people.

If you could achieve one thing with the album, what would you wish to achieve?

I really wish my music can touch people, make them feel things. That they can relate to some situations, feelings, relations I’m talking about, even some words. I want them to be open and allow themselves to feel, if it’s joy, sadness, pain, guilt, strength, courage, emptiness. But I also hope sometimes they’ll just be able to dance on the songs, enjoy the melodies, not thinking about anything. There’s a time for everything.

If you could collaborate with one artist on a record, who would it be?

I guess making something with Alt-J or Lorde would be a dream. Maybe both!

And for your fans from Eurovision, which one Eurovision artist would you collaborate with?

Well well, Kristian Kostov sings beautifully and has cool songs, Duncan Laurence also has a really nice voice…



Pre-Order Empire