He has over 500,000 subscribers on TikTok. And in the summer of 2022 he also had a local hit with the song “Say My Name”. But despite the hopes of many of his fans, we won’t be seeing Berre at Eurosong 2023. The Flemish star says he declined an invitation from VRT.21-year-old Berre Vandenbussche started going viral with his TikTok covers in February 2022, catching the eyes and ears of Belgian media.
Three months later, in May 2022, Berre released his first single “Say My Name”, which reached Number 4 on the Flemish radio charts. The song quickly proved a local hit as he was invited to sing on the legendary Flemish music programme Tien Om Te Zien throughout the Summer.
Flemish broadcaster VRT saw the success too and they reportedly invited the TikTok talent to compete in their Eurovision selection. However, Berre told radio programme Kawtar & Keyaert on MNM that he gave them a “no”. Speaking on Tuesday he said:
“They have asked it, yes, but I have politely declined. Because I just have the feeling that I am not ready for it. Because everything is starting calmly and performances have to happen [for me]. I just don’t see myself standing on such a large stage yet.”
Nevertheless, the Brabant native said that he was not ruling out participation in the future.
“I just feel that I have to get experience,” he added.
How will Belgium select its Eurovision 2023 act?
In 2023, the northern region of Belgium, Flanders and its broadcaster VRT, is responsible for selecting the country’s Eurovision 2023 entrant. In July, VRT announced that it would be reviving Eurosong, after seven years of internal selections.
By September, the broadcaster acknowledged that it was “too late” for a submission period and that it would take the responsibility of getting acts to participate itself.
Fresh names like Camille and Pommelien Thijs have backed out as participants, while long-time stars Natalia and Laura Tesoro are reportedly still thinking about it.
Who do you want to see in Eurosong 2023? Who is your dream contestant for Belgium at Eurovision 2023? Let us know in the comments down below!
He was honest and smart. There is time.
Great way to say you’re afraid of failure! ??
Or He’s just expressing that he doesn’t feel ready for eurovision yet. How many times have we had inexperienced singers crumble under pressure performing at Eurovision and getting poor results?
If he feels that he is not ready yet, I can respect that.
I need Tamino
Tamino would bring victory or top 3 result for Belgium for sure.
Yeah Its combination of Hoverphonic and Blanche <3 …. However i heard he rejected ESC ….
I would also consider a more experienced artist. Very few can make the jump from TikTok to ESC, with the notable exception of Sam Ryder
Tbh, Space Man is a great song and staging was cool. Do you think his stage presence was something out of ordinary? Experience would be great, with no exceptions imo
I mean, that’s reasonable. Belgium has learned the hard way at least a few times that a talented performer who’s still at the beginning of their career may not be ready for such a big jump yet.
Not only because of that, but also because Eurovision is seen as a circus and a lot of Flemish want Flanders out of the contest. Tamino also refused and said that Eurovision doesn’t have the audience he wants to attract with his music.
It’s a shame to hear that, considering most of Western Europe (including their neighbors in France and the Netherlands) has come around to the importance of taking it seriously. Heck, even for their lack of recent success, Germany and Ireland still have big audiences for Eurovision, and countries like the UK and Spain that people thought would never take Eurovision seriously again are finally doing so. Belgium got three top ten finishes in a row not too long ago, and one of those songs was Flemish, so they’d better wise up and realize their attitude is increasingly putting them in… Read more »
There’s still a lot of Dutch people who don’t really take Eurovision seriously either. The sentiment ‘oh, it’s just a circus where every Eastern European country votes for each other’ exists in every country. Flanders have some good artists, the VRT just needs to convince one of them to go to Eurovision with one of the best songs of their career (and not, like Hooverphonic did, with a throwaway… twice).
Hooverphonic had a great song… Maybe not the most competitive but good
It’s actually the fault of the previous VRT management. They never really cared about it and never took it seriously. The new management wants to win, but now Laura Tesoro, Nathalia and so many others refused too. I hope they have Jade De Rijcke, because a young talented artists is what we need. Those who have already a name never do really well in ESC.
It’s also rich when you consider how small an area Flanders is in the grand scheme of things but they still have local artists who would rather turn down a potential audience of millions because it’s “not the audience they want to attract.” Then who DO they want to attract? If they’re defiantly, proudly local and don’t care about their reach outside their own country, that’s fine (part of why I’ve made my peace with the fact that my favorite Israeli band, Jane Bordeaux, will probably never represent Israel – they just aren’t interested in developing a big international audience).… Read more »
Flanders artists aren’t necessarily ‘defiantly, proudly local’. They just know they have the means to start an international career without having to rely on Eurovision’s huge career boost. Then, think of Hooverphonic who received just 3 points from the televote.That came as a surprise, to me at least, and that didn’t seem like a fair result at all. Considering the fact that they’re very famous and most important of all because ‘The wrong place’ along with the Swiss song was the best IMO. So, what does their result mean? Maybe Hooverphonic’s audience doesn’t follow Eurovision or doesn’t care enough for… Read more »
I also thought The Wrong Place deserved better but the voting in that final was brutally lopsided to the clear best songs anyway. Except the Netherlands. Sigh. If the Flemish have a platform to get exposure on a worldwide level for their musicians that’s as effective as Eurovision, I’d love to hear it. Obviously not every artist fits Eurovision and there’s more than one way to get exposure, but if you’re a pop artist in particular, I don’t see the downside. If you’re beloved enough in your own country, you can tank and still have a career there (look at… Read more »
Stroman in from Brussels hy is not a Waloon
Hoverphonic were lost in position 4 in the Grand final …. (Forgotten) is maybe better word
I like Hooverphonic, but The Wrong Place was an uninspired and repetitive effort. Also, the 12-10-8 points voting system results in the fact that you can come 11th in the televote in every country and still pick up nill points. If you have a ‘meh’ song this tends to happen.
Calm down, not everybode needs to want an international carreer. If you can earn money with smaller gigs and wisely produced albums and singles – why bother about Eurovision? It means a lot of stress and is also VERY time consuming.
Honestly Tamino is already a huge name. He’s performing all over Europe. And in May he’s performing in Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany. He’s not the only artist who said this. Camile was VRT’s favorite to do, but she refused it too. It’s because Eurovision has a bad name here and it’s seen as a circus among the artists, which was also caused by the previous VRT management. We can’t change anything about it.
Blanche was 4th with a great song. That was a circus also for the Belgium viewers??!