Early Monday morning, they released their eagerly anticipated song for Belgium at Eurovision 2020. But within hours of “Release Me” debuting, social media was up in arms over some comments attributed to Hooverphonic’s front man Alex Callier.

The fuss arose from an online article, published by VRT, originally entitled “In the circus of bad taste, there is also place for a pearl”. The piece quickly gained traction with many reading the out-of-context comments as an arrogant declaration.

However, wiwibloggs has reached out to VRT for comment. In an exclusive statement, originally sent to us in Flemish, the Belgian broadcaster confirms that it’s all a big misunderstanding.

Hooverphonic’s “Circus Of Bad Taste” Comments — VRT Statement

“This quote has been taken out of context. A lot of people in the surroundings of Alex ask him ‘why do you do this?!’. And those people are calling it ‘a fest of bad taste’. Something Alex and co don’t agree with at all! They love Eurovision. There is indeed a big show element in the contest with bells and whistles.

Hooverphonic will not be part of this, because Hooverphonic is just Hooverphonic and they want to stay close to their DNA. So, if people interpret Eurovision as a cirsus of bad taste, then let them do that. Alex, Luka and Raymond are enormously looking forward to it!”

One of our team, who attended Monday’s song launch explains that it was most likely a sarcastic answer from Alex. Many have been attacking the group’s participation, and they are the ones branding Eurovision a “circus of bad taste”. Playing the haters at their own game, Alex is saying that if that’s the case, the group is a pearl.

Callier is a lifetime Eurovision fan. Speaking to wiwibloggs in January he spoke of his love of song contest classics from France Gall and Viky Leandros right up to Salvador Sobral and Lake Malawi.

Follow all of our Belgium Eurovision 2020 news.

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jfox_80
jfox_80
4 years ago

It’s interesting to read some of the negative comments that project a sense of knowing Alex. I’ve known Alex and Raymond for over over two decades, and some of you are so far off the mark. I can confirm unequivocally that he and Raymond enjoy the Eurovision contest. If you think that they will perform this song exaaaaactly like the video version, you’ll be sadly mistaken (or delighted). As for staging, will it be bombastic…no. Will it be the same as the video, no. They work with international stage personnel whose creativity can also be experienced with other international bands/artists.… Read more »

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

There’s no such thing as a “true” Eurovision fan. If there was, I’m not sure a “true” fan would be so unwelcoming to an entrant who has repeatedly spoken highly of the contest, demonstrated an understanding of it, and shown enough enthusiasm to enter twice.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Sometimes I read back what I wrote and it sounds much harsher than how I heard it in my head. Like somebody said, tone is hard to convey sometimes. The same with Alex. No grudges…

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

A true fan of Eurovision enjoys Eurovision. Normally I agree with you, Una, but I can’t say I do here. We mustn’t be gatekeepers. If you want to sincerely appreciate Eurovision, just watch it. Maybe only watching the final isn’t the full experience, but it’s better than not watching at all.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

It’s OK! We all go a bit overboard sometimes.

Roo
Roo
4 years ago

After the marathon running time of last years Eurovision one must make a quick dash through

Mia
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  Roo

Hoover-up ! 😀

Tim
Tim
4 years ago

A small reminder to 2015, when Mans got trashed in advance for alleged homophobic statements…same with Waylon who was being served of as being arrogant and snobbish in 2014…stop being hysterical yall….Yes, Alex may be stuck up and full off what he does….We, as fans, do not run nore determine the contest! Hell, we’re about 2% of the complete voting/watching audience, most of them only see the songs for the first time on the night of the semis… The fact that this song/man generates so much fuss with cons and pros says more than actually ignoring it completely…which would do… Read more »

Tim
Tim
4 years ago
Reply to  Tim

don’t need any, especially not validated by you Anita 😉

Mia
Mia
4 years ago

I mean really.. LOL
He thinks that statement is actually positive?
Get a grip, man, OPEN UP 😀

Matt
Matt
4 years ago

Another drama … There are dramas every year, it gets tiring. It’s just an excuse for people to hate certain artists. Personally I don’t like Arilena Ara at all but that’s not why I’m going to destroy her reputation … Can’t we just enjoy the contest as it should be?

supercalifragilistic
supercalifragilistic
4 years ago

People who say esc is circus, are those who seem to not want staging (Salvador, Hooverphonics). Sorry, we keep our stagings and our fireworks. You can go and sing in a dark basement.

hebbuzz
hebbuzz
4 years ago

Sarcasm is dangerous in Social media where people cant hear the tone of voice.

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
4 years ago

It’s a part of toxic drama culture some people are into

xohxoh
xohxoh
4 years ago

Damage control. They said what they said, except they’re the actual clowns here. We don’t need this pretentious clownery in the contest.

Craigeemac
Craigeemac
4 years ago

I loved Badaboum when they had Emily Statt (one half of Madame Monsiuer) singing along. Amazing song! Release Me is not really my style of music, but at least this song is something they would release, Eurovision or not, so I respect them being true to themsleves. I think we will see more bands/artists in the future wanting creative control of their entry, especially if they are asked to particiapate by the broadcaster.

SannylovesOnfire
SannylovesOnfire
4 years ago

I dont care what they said. I want them to flop bc the song is 1 big pile of pretentious cr*p.

Haute Galore
Haute Galore
4 years ago

Imagine calling yourself ‘a pearl among bad taste’ and then singing Release Me… ouch!

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Haute Galore

They earned it by building up a lasting career with an international fanbase, I wouldn’t say they’ve had it handed to them out of nowhere.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Okay. Internal selections are nothing new. Hooverphonic have repeatedly said they value the contest and eagerly anticipate their participation. That’s enough for me.

Monika
Monika
4 years ago

Shame on them, they won’t even qualify with this circus of a dated song…

Anders
Anders
4 years ago

He’s a fan of salvador sobral….enough said…

GLBhmn
GLBhmn
4 years ago

Its a grower for me! But for most on the night it will be their first time hearing this so yeeah

Bob
Bob
4 years ago

Well their song belongs in a circus of bad taste, so they must be happy to take part 🙂

Escf
Escf
4 years ago

Too late for love, damage is done, hahaha

Bigger
Bigger
4 years ago

Some context is very important; I remember the first interview after it was reveiled that they were going to represent Belgium. Alex, contrarily to what many people believe by this misunderstanding, is actually a big Eurovision fan. He said that he watched each year and at a party even went to the toilet several times to watch it secretly, as others didn’t care about it. What he meant with “circus” is that the general population (Belgium, UK, Netherlands, probably every country) still thinks that Eurovision is still like the early crazy 2000s. In the same interview he said that Eurovision,… Read more »

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Bigger

Agreed on all counts. People just look for excuses to hate things.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Can more people read this comment and burn it into their brains before they go slagging off on Alex again? No comment he made before these supposed remarks ever even gave the hint that he looked at the contest as a silly circus and these should make it clear that he’s never had that opinion.

Kung Frederick 90
Kung Frederick 90
4 years ago

Not all Eurovision is a circus of bad taste! Salvador Sobral, Duncan Lawrence, Loreen, Jamala, Conchita, Emmelie de Forest , Måns Zermerlow they won without showing trash . But I agree with Alex that many stuff here in the game are extremely trash, Take a look at many entries of the end of the 90’s and the beginning of the 00’s.

emeej
emeej
4 years ago

Salvador, Jamala and Conchita is trash and a circus of bad taste

emeej
emeej
4 years ago
Reply to  emeej

I take that as a compliment coming from someone with ESCfan in their username

Ashton Schier
Ashton Schier
4 years ago
Reply to  emeej

why are u even on this website emeej if u think that being an ESCfan is something to be ashamed of. go away, we as Eurovision fans are sick of toxic people like you.

Kris
Kris
4 years ago
Reply to  emeej

They are amongst the most divisive winners

In the sense that many people including me didn’t have them in the Top 20 , or in some case Top 32 even but then many people had them as their most favourite song .

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

BTW, if the rumor mill is to be believed (particularly the Twitter of Ireland’s OGAE head), Lesley Roy may be the Irish representative. Other folks are saying it may be a band called ELM, but their concert schedule overlaps with Eurovision rehearsals and they’ve already played the alleged entry live, which might be verboten.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

Bigger update: ALL of Lake Malawi will be competing in the Polish final, and Lucy is their song.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

The Polish voters just have to let them into their hearts. Then they can start to make it better!

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

(Yo I didn’t realize the joke was specifically about “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and thought it was just about how he competed in the Beatles semi-final. It works on multiple levels!)

Denis
Denis
4 years ago

You can be a fan and still think it’s a circus, bad taste. But there is nothing wrong with thinking that, or love it. At least fans doesn’t pretend it’s something it’s not, like many participants seem to think.

ThomasC
ThomasC
4 years ago

He doesn’t hate Eurovision, he actually loves it. Hooverphonic would never participate if they think they are ‘too good’ for this show, because then it might harm their image. Just participating, saying yes to the question of VRT means that they like Eurovision and that they have a place there.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

That’s the point. The contest is for everyone. It seems any amount of gay is “too gay” for some people. That’s their problem.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

If you’re getting “special treatment” for being gay then it’s anything but equal

Kris
Kris
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

I have to agree , the point of the contest is not to make people discuss sexuality. We’re being truly inclusive of LGBT community when people wouldn’t need to point it out to people that they are a member. That’s inclusivity .

This ‘I am Gay ‘ sounds good only when you have three weaker songs competing in semi 5 in Norway , otherwise it’s the opposite of inclusiveness if you have to specifically point it out everywhere you go

Kosey
Kosey
4 years ago

“There is a big show element in the contest with bells and whistles”

Er, what exactly do they mean with that?

I hate the snobbery to be honest – there is nothing worse than artists thinking their art is more worthy than other people’s art.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Kosey

If they’re all equal, then wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of a contest?

Kosey
Kosey
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

Keiino?

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

This is not a big deal, and I believe Hooverphonic only have positive feelings toward the contest. Why else would they enter? I hope nobody holds a grudge against them for this, because that would just be silly.

Alex
Alex
4 years ago

What I don’t understand is why some broadcasters are always going year after year with the same songwriters, stage directors, etc.
This goes for Belgium but it happens to a lot of countries. Also in NF. It’s like they dont’t even make the effort. They just go with the safe/easy way.
I’m sure there are so many talented people out there

poe-tay-toe chips
poe-tay-toe chips
4 years ago

You know, I wouldn’t care about their comment if it weren’t for the fact that they sent a bland song that goes nowhere…there’s a lack of self-awareness here.

Everyone knows they are capable of doing better. Like if you’re gonna say something like that, at least send a song interesting enough to justify it. I’m sorry dude but the song you chose isn’t exactly a pearl either.

Bob
Bob
4 years ago

Exactly! It’s fine if you say that and actually send an amazing track. Otherwise, be humble.

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago

it is a honest opinion, i appreciate honesty, and it is also true, back longer time ago there also had been fun songs, ballads but also more of that with real music

generic, fast food is meant in a way like overfabricated, overproduced some has made me happy too, but i am a fan of real music too (i did dislike amar pelos dois myself but recently i can also understand Salvador a lot more)

Purple Mask
Purple Mask
4 years ago

It is clear to me from the article that the journalist had asked the band why they were participating in Eurovision when the contest had been labelled by others as “a circus of bad taste”. Yes, Alex’s reply was following the same brutal lines (“in that case the group is a pearl”), but the question itself did not come from him, so neither did the judgement, yet. The danger is that if the band starts reading comments like some from the fans below, they are going to start to agree with the press assessment of a “circus”, simply because that… Read more »

Tom
Tom
4 years ago

OMG they are so fake!!
I liked their entry but now they are over for me

Laura
Laura
4 years ago
Reply to  Tom

They aren’t fake at all ! Excuse me but did you read the tittle of this article ? Also I’m Belgian and I saw the original newsletter and it was totally wrong translated in English ! so please don’t think they are fake , they love Eurovision for years especially Alex so change your mind please !

eurofan
eurofan
4 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Alex has already stated before that he loves Eurovision, and that even last year he was invited to a dinner but followed the voting on his smartphone in the restroom 😉 So he’s not arrogant, and the article is totally misplaced.

Isak
Isak
4 years ago
Reply to  eurofan

He sat in the restroom for two hours?

Elaris
Elaris
4 years ago

It was a poor choice of words, but he said them nevertheless. The translation of the written article was exactly how he said it on the radio. I get what he was saying and I totally support them for wanting to be different than the rest, but he could and should have brought that differently. I’m still rooting for my neighbours though.

Idan Cohen
Idan Cohen
4 years ago

Why do Eurovision fans get so upset when people still think that Eurovision is a circus? It was definitely a bad circus in the 00’s and this is what most of the world still thinks. Wanna change it? put a pressure on your country to send good singers and songs AND VOTE FOR THE GOOD SONGS. if it’s outdated, cliche, boring, predictable – NO REASON TO VOTE FOR IT. “I hate it when people think ESC is gay” => well yeah, stop sending self-empowerment pop songs about being gay, stop sending male singers who make faces to the camera and… Read more »

Idan Cohen
Idan Cohen
4 years ago
Reply to  Idan Cohen

I mean jesus christ! we got into the sad (*SAD*) time where non-gay singers wanna represent their country with a song named “I am gay”..

Instead of kicking the song to the curve and NOT co-operating with the act, you actually vote for it?!

Have lost every common sense?! and then you complain that anyone “thinks Eurovision is gay”, well yeah, no shit!

Idan Cohen
Idan Cohen
4 years ago
Reply to  Idan Cohen

(I can go on and on about how “I am gay” is an insult to any gay with a functioning brain, how this song does a cynical usage of the gay community, and how this song actually does the counter-effect by fixating the notion that gays are necessarily “flamboyant, air-headed men that think only about sex” but this is a different issue) (And people say how much Shefita is a racist joke that shouldn’t even be broadcasted. yeah, but a singer that makes us all look like we have the musical taste of a 12 year old valley girl. yay,… Read more »

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago
Reply to  Idan Cohen

You have no idea how happy I am to see this comment.

Idan Cohen
Idan Cohen
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

You welcome. I am the Israeli who don’t mind saying what everyone thinks but afraid to say 🙂

Nicky91
Nicky91
4 years ago
Reply to  Idan Cohen

they don’t say that though

you just need to think about the song first, and then the act (finland can prove that this year too if they go for cicciolina which is a good song and also accompanied by a show act, and makes finnish language shine) a example from me

serbia can go for something modern, good music if a Dusa I Telo or Ne Pustam, or to a extent Kao Muzika which are great songs, and great entertainment value without going over the top

Robert
Robert
4 years ago

Well there is a unhealthy derogatory kind of way of thinking in the Benelux, maybe in more places in Europe.. Every year my friends and colleagues go out of their way to ask why I like the circus that is my lovely Eurovision.. ‘Serious’ artists copy that thought so I think he’s more sorry about the reaction he got rather than what he actually said.. Having said that as for the song, love it now.. Let’s judge the musicality rather than what the artist may say.. Carola came far with Invincible after her homophobic remarks.. Release him of his attitude

Kobe
Kobe
4 years ago

I knew something like that would happen with Alex Callier from day one . I only didn’t expect it to happen so soon 😀

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

See? Told you it was a misunderstanding.

Nicolas
Nicolas
4 years ago

Ah Ah Ah, there’s only one Salvador. Do assume my friend.

Milan
Milan
4 years ago

The emperor is naked.

JeyDelRey
JeyDelRey
4 years ago

Taken out of context or not, he still said it. I don’t hate the song but it has nothing special, it is not the best, and this man does not make me want to root for Hooverphonic.

Heix
Heix
4 years ago
Reply to  JeyDelRey

Their song is a quality between all boring ESC cliche and generic sons by Canto, Ulrikke, Tom from France etc.

Mia
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  Heix

Their song is nothing special tbh, there are hundreds of songs like that. And if they decided to enter the contest, they should learn to take criticism and not to act like spoiled divas. I want fall just for big name, just saying.

Moongaze
Moongaze
4 years ago
Reply to  Mia

There are THOUSANDS of songs like that “Fuego” and you still treat it as a “masterpiece…

Mariko
Mariko
4 years ago
Reply to  JeyDelRey

No he didn’t. He said (in dutch) that other people here always consider Eurovision a circus. Which they do. I’m actually afraid to tell people in Flandeds I watch it not to laugh at it, because people will not believe me.

Dawid
Dawid
4 years ago
Reply to  JeyDelRey

So it’s personality contest for you? Do you know what S in ESC stands for?

Milan S.
Milan S.
4 years ago
Reply to  Dawid

Staging, of course.