Loïc Nottet on his Eurovision staging: There won’t be dancers

Save for a few radio appearances, Belgium’s Loïc Nottet has been keeping a relatively low profile in the run-up to Eurovision 2015. He may not have been partying it out with the other contestants at the preview events, but that’s not to say he hasn’t been busy. In fact, he’s spent the last few months in planning meetings with his record label and Belgian television. Amidst everything he found some time to record a special message for his fans at wiwibloggs. And that’s not all. The current leader of our “Favourite Teenage Act at Eurovision 2015” poll also gave us a little background on himself, “Rhythm Inside”, his Eurovision plans, and career hopes for after the contest. Ain’t he a sweetie. Y’all can watch his video message below, and keep scrolling to read what Loïc has to say about everything else.

Loïc Nottet – Fan Message

About himself

I am Loïc Nottet, I am 19 years old. I am a perfectionist. Maybe too much. I am someone that is ambitious and who likes challenges and who doesn’t like to lose challenges and fights. I mean I am not going to be happy if I lose my own project, if I mess my song or my video or my performance. I don’t want to lose challenges against myself. I am not someone that likes competitions, I don’t care about that. I just want to sing as better as I can and do my work like I want and share something with the audience and just have fun.

On my free time I dance a lot, I write novels or poetry. Weirdly I really hate reading books but I like writing them. It must be about the creativity you have to have when you write. It is not the same with reading. I am someone that is really nervous so I have to do something every time. I can’t stay sit on my chair and look through the window. I have to do something with my hands and feet.

On how his Eurovision journey began

I finished second at The Voice Belgique. After that I signed my contract with Sony Music. And one day in August I think the RTBF (the national French speaking broadcaster) contact Sony Music to know if I was interested in participating at the ESC and after Sony called me. At first I didn’t say yes right away. I said “ok I have to think about it”. I thought a lot about that proposition. I was a completely new artist without songs, style, or pictures, without anything and I wanted to be sure we had time enough to realize everything we had to do. That’s why I didn’t said yes directly.

On “Rhythm Inside”and its message

“Rhythm Inside” is different. It is something powerful, very clean in musical sounds. It is pure. The universe of the song is dark. I mean in my head I see “Rhythm Inside” as something dark. Not as something bad. It is just the colours I see when I hear “Rhythm Inside”. The message behind it is “we are all the same”.

For example in the same street we can have a beautiful skinny girl and next to her we can have a big woman but as beautiful as the skinny girl. “Rhythm Inside” tells that story: “We are different, we have different personality and we are different person but inside everyone has blood and a heart. Everyone is human. You can be rich, poor, we are all the same.” Being different is not a reason not to walk in the same direction hand in hand. We have to help each other because we are humans and yes of course there are rich men, poor men, skinny or big people but that is not important. Everything is going to be fine and easier if we walk on the same way.

On the creative process behind “Rhythm Inside”

I was alone in my room around midnight something like that and I just begun to play with my piano and suddenly I found cool chords. After I tried to sing on it and I found the melody of “Rhythm Inside” and the song was born like that. I knew that I wanted to talk about what hurts me. I really take care about equalities so I just wanted to talk about that in my song because I think it is important for an artist to say what he thinks and to make people react on it. So I contacted BJ Scott that I knew from The Voice to put words on my ideas and I think she did it great.

It is not a particular style, it is mine. I didn’t wanted to do the ESC with something that doesn’t matches with me. I wouldn’t like to go on stage with something that doesn’t speak to me. It’s like lying to your fans and your public and it’s not cool. You have to be honest and everything will be fine. I didn’t work “Rhythm Inside” with the goal to win the Eurovision Song Contest. I worked on it as a single and something you would hear on the radio.

On  “rapapabab”

Rapapabab means the heart beating.

On the music video

Creation: we went to London because we saw great pictures on a website of an artist from London called Joshua Brandon, so we contacted him to work with us on pictures first of all and after we talked about the video.

Meaning: I wrote a story with white people, black people and red people. The white people mean what the society would like us to be like be skinny, no revolution, etc, perfect persons. And the black people means the difference. It doesn’t mean something bad. For example, it is not because a girl is big that she is not as beautiful as the skinny girl or a fashion model. It is not because you are a boy that you cannot dance for example. Or because you are a girl that you cannot fight in the army. The red means that finally everyone is the same inside. Of course we are different, we have different personality and culture but inside we have the same things: a heart, blood and that’s all that matters.

https://youtu.be/jWDMUN332F8

On his staging for Eurovision

Something very bright, minimalistic and pure, clean, very robotic movements. There will be surprises. I am going to keep it simple but modern with new technologies. I think it’s going to be something new for Eurovision. There won’t be dancers but backing vocals. “Rhythm Inside” is a really complicated song and I needed a lot of voices for it and the main rule on ESC is that everything that is sang in the song has to be sing in real for the show. So “Rhythm Inside” needs a lot of voices so I needed a lot of backing vocals. Another rule is that there’s a limited number of people allowed on stage (six) so I had to choose if I wanted dancers or backing vocals and I think it was better to have backing vocals rather than dancers so I took backing vocals and tried to include the idea of dancers with the backing vocals.

On his preparation for Eurovision

I do a lot of meetings with Sony Music and the national broadcaster, the RTBF. We gather and meet often to talk about the performance on stage. It is the way I prepare for Eurovision. A lot of meetings and a lot of creativity. I off course rehears my song few times a week. I think the most difficult for me is to work with other people. I am someone that is used to work alone and I like it. I have my own ideas. So it’s difficult for me to work with a team. When I am sure about something I am sure about it and no one can change my mind. With the ESC, I learn something new. We are a team.

On his musical influences

My influences in music are: Sia, Florence and the Machine, Lorde, London Grammar, Hurts and I also really love Queen. Sia’s “Elastic Heart” is a powerful song and it means so much to me. The lyrics matches a lot with who I am and it’s like a fight that Sia has with herself and like I have also.

On his future studies and career post-Eurovision

For the moment I got my High School diploma last June and now I just decided to stop studying to make music. Maybe in several years, I will start school again to study something related to art. My Eurovision goal is to have more experience and to meet a big audience. I would like to meet some new artists and new persons with whom I could collaborate.  I wish to do an album one day but I don’t know when. Maybe next year or in two years or…

I really like music and I need it to be fine in my skin. I really need dance and drama too. I need art in general. I would like to make a career in music and if it’s possible I would like to share my music with France, maybe England too. It’s crazy to think like this but I need it. If I just stay in Belgium it would be a huge defeat for me.

And a message for his fans

Be who you are and try to enjoy life even if it’s not easy every day.

FOLLOW ALL OUR EUROVISION BELGIUM NEWS HERE