Credits
News
Best of CD in February
Urban Trad to celebrate 10th anniversary
Describing themselves as a band writing and performing "European traditional music of the 21th century", Urban Trad’s project started in May 2000, when Yves Barbieux gathered to create a first CD with artists already well-known in the traditional Belgian music scene (Orion, Luc Pilartz, Perry Rose, Tom Theuns, Didier Laloy…). In the beginning, it was meant to be just an album project, but the success encountered during the promotional concerts encouraged Yves in adding a public dimension to Urban Trad with other artists. Each of their 4 studio albums – the later published in 2007 – includes collaborations with other musicians. Back in 2003, the CD album Kerua as well as the CD single Sanomi almost sold 35,000 copies each, "mostly in Belgium", as the biography states. “The second place at Eurovision was not enough to give the impulse we hoped for abroad, both for record selling and dates”, the group declares on its website.
Urban Trad is also called a band to experience live. Next on their schedule is a concert this Saturday, 19th December, in Buggenhout (East Flanders).
Urban Trad represented Belgium in 2003 with the song Sanomi, the first Eurovision Song Contest entry to be performed entirely in an imaginary language. They placed 2nd, only two points behind Turkey’s Sertar Erener thus being the best placed Belgian act since Sandra Kim.
Urban Trad live at Les Francofolies de Spa (2004):
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
Go directly to the reactions
Reactions
When reacting to a news item, please stick to the topic. Inappropriate messages (swearing, racism, hate, etc.), messages in other languages than English and spam (which includes URL advertising) will be deleted and you risk your account being removed. Reacting on newsitems is only possible when logged in as a member. Still don't have member account?
Click here to react Click here to become a member (free!)
.jpg)
Could we have possibly have an article without the usual whingers harping on about diaspora? Turkey won. I'm prepared to accept it, so should everyone else. Turkey got points from all over Europe. It was close voting, both decent songs and made for a great contest in 2003 - that's what I want to see. Some people are never happy (especially on this web site) and seem to enjoy complaining (and of course, telling us over and over).
Congrats. It was a beautiful entry, but Sertab's victory was well deserved. My favourite in 2003 was France though ...
Their entry was nice.
But ,think, the winner song will play again and it is sanomi? c'moon it is not good.
And Daniel, i prepared some quotes for you.
I voted for Turkey in 2003. I hope I am not considered as diaspora.
I wasn't very keen on "Sanomi" (I voted for Turkey) and my fellow countrymen didn't seem to like it either. Sweden gave it 0 points.
@ Daniel (again loool)
Lets compare 2002 to 2003:
2002: Austria: 0, Belgium: 0, France: 7, Germany: 0, Netherlands; withdrew, Switzerland: 0, UK: 0.
2003: Austria: 12, Belgium: 12, France: 10, Germany: 10, Netherlands; 12, Switzerland: withdrew, UK: 7.
Having seen the results that Turkey recieved in 2002 would one really have expected them to recieve these points in 2003 just through diasopra voting?
@ Daniel, the point is that the entire diaspora wasnt always giving 12 points to Turkey every year (though there is obviously strong voting going on in Germany... but there is around 4 million Turks living there so thats not exactly shocking)... Thus, when Sertab preformed, the votes she recieved were not predicatble (like it is today) because as the stats that I have written here show, many of these countries didnt even used to give Turkey a single point. It was once Sertab won that Turks started to believe that Turkey could win again... and it is for this reason that now Turks vote more than they used to.
Ozi, how can it be after Sertab won when you yourself have listed those 10-12 points in 2003? And listing when countries were out of the contest is rather pointless, as obviously they couldn't vote when they weren't there.
I gave averages for the last 10 years, dividing the number of points a country gave by the number of times that country was in the contest.
If you prefer to exclude 2000-2002, the average results are even more extreme:
Azerbaijan 12.0
France 11.4
Netherlands 11.1
Germany 10.9
Belgium 10.7
Austria 9.3
Bosnia 8.9
Albania 8.8
Switzerland 8.7
The averages from some other countries by contrast:
Estonia 0
Serbia 0
Ireland 0.1
Moldova 0.2
Latvia 0.3
Andorra 0.5
Lithuania 0.5
Belarus 1.0
Spain 1.0
LOL I don’t want to get into all this diaspora debates but here it goes hehe.
Let's look at stats starting from 1997 since that is the year that televoting began. These stats shows the points given to Turkey by the top 7 Turkish diasporas:
1997: Austria: 7, Belgium: withdrew, France: 6, Germany: 12, Netherlands: 2, Switzerland: 6, UK: 4.
1998: Austria: withdrew, Belgium: 0, France: 0, Germany: 12, Netherlands; 1, Switzerland: 0, UK: 0.
1999: Austria: 0, Belgium: 0, France: 5, Germany: 12, Netherlands; 0, Switzerland: withdrew, UK: 0.
2000: Austria: 5, Belgium: 3, France: 12, Germany: 12, Netherlands; 12, Switzerland: 0, UK: 0.
2001: Austria: withdrew, Belgium: withdrew, France: 7, Germany: 7, Netherlands; 3, Switzerland: withdrew, UK: 0.
2002: Austria: 0, Belgium: 0, France: 7, Germany: 0, Netherlands; withdrew, Switzerland: 0, UK: 0.
2003: Austria: 12, Belgium: 12, France: 10, Germany: 10, Netherlands; 12, Switzerland: withdrew, UK: 7.
2004: Austria: 8, Belgium: 12, France: 12, Germany: 12, Netherlands; 12, Switzerland: 8, UK: 6.
This therefore clearly shows that all the 12 points which Turkey now recieves only started to be predicatable after Sertab won... and not before nor even in the 2003 contest (apart from Germany-though they gave nil points in 2002 and 10 in 2003).
'Since 2000' means 2000-2009, not 2000-2003
And to say that the Scandinavian and western countries were so biased in the 1970s is just another myth. Just take a look at the scores that the Nordic countries got in the 1970s and you will see that they all had some really bad results of less than 10 points. That wouldn't be possible if they were all giving 8-12 points to each other There was some bias, but only slight compared to what we now see in the contest.
Before televoting, the only extreme voting bias was between Greece and Cyprus. Since televoting, the large majority of extreme voting bias is either to or between countries in the eastern half of Europe.
We can't change history, we can only change the future. The future has already changed for Eurovision voting, and it's fair now. We can't complain, there's no point complaining about the past, that will only cause hatred and annoyance. It's obvious Turkey did win because of diasporal, but also because it was one of the first songs to have a major gimmicky choregraphy. But complaining will only make matters worse now, just be grateful the EBU has finally taken action against it 
Sorry for another post which has to do something with "diaspora", but...
@Daniel
I found it funny that you are still mentioning Bosnia with "6.9" from 2000-2003 when in those period Bosnia voted only once for Turkey and it was in 2003 - 12 pts.
@Daniel C Bagpuss VI
So tell us, why has Turkey received just 10 points from most of the countries, where lots of Turk's live? 
I didn't say ONLY diaspora but unless you believe that Turkey got less than 3 points through diaspora, it wouldn't have been possible to win without diaspora.
The countries that have voted most for Turkey since 2000 (and who were in the 2003 contest) are:
France Average 10.6
Netherlands ave. 10.3
Germany 9.3
Belgium 8.7
Austria 7.0
Bosnia 6.9
Romania 6.3
All of these countries gave Turkey 10-12 points in 2003. That's 78 points (almost 47%) from just 7 countries who have voted most for Turkey.
@ ss501
check your eurovision history, turkey only entered twice in the 70s
@Absolute Guetta
Thanks for ur understanding!
@ David Bagpuss
Seriously, don't you think it was so obvious by the turks to anticipate for their own entry they believed could finally success and appeal to the European audience? I mean, ofc there were some usual diaspora voters among the Turkish community, BUT I also think the majority of them voted for their own entry because it clearly appealed to them the most, along with other European voters. It's just plain wrong by you to claim that all Turks who voted for Sertab did it because of diaspora and nationality. Look at the biased Western and Scandinavian juries in the 70s, how was Turkey treated? Did anyone complain? Turkey only had one victory in 2003 and you all are going bloody mad. Double standars.
Oh please, stop moaning about diaspora in this site 24/7, I think most people are rather sick of some certain people who HAVE to add on the word "diaspora" in every single post. You sound like a worse loser for each time you just open your mouth of arrogance. And you certain people claim that there is going something anti-british in this site? HUH. Look at your own behaviour towards other countries.
Both Belgium and Turkey had great entries in 2003 - and I think Turkey won because it was the first ever ethnic-pop song added with unusual coreography, which made them more unique.
@Daniel C Bagpuss VI
Turkey didn't receive any points from Bosnia couple of years before 2003. In 2003 jury voted in Bosnia and gave 12 pts to Turkey so you can't call that diaspora/friendly voting.
Urban Trad was amazing, but I still think that Turkish entry from 2003 is best entry in this decade.
@Daniel C Bagpuss VI
And what about countries like Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, ..., which gave us many points?
@Axel Kearns
U are saying, that Turkey had just won with diaspora voting in 2003, but I'm saying NO, coz Turkey received points from countries in that year, which don't gave us points since 2005!
Oh please, Sertab won by just 2 points. Is it just a coincidence that the countries that voted so heavily for Turkey in 2003 are the same ones as always? 68 points out of 167 (that's nearly 41%) from just Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, France, Germany and the Netherlands. To try and say that diaspora had nothing to do with this win is completely ludicrous.
I think Sertab won for a number of reasons;
1) At the time what she did was unique... when we look back at it, it doesnt seem as special anymore because soooo many artists have copied her style
2) Yes there was diaspora voting... but I truely believe that the Turks never really used to care about voting during the early times of the contest because they never used to think that Turkey would ever win! It was after Sertab won that Turks started to really pick up the phones and vote for Turkey.
3) She had a great choreography and interacted with the audience.
But anyway, this article is about Beligum... lets not let this great song be over-shadowed by Sertab and diaspora debates! 
Says who ? You ? This song is of a quality far superior than all the other songs you mention, together. Sertab only won becasue of diaspora, otherwise this juwel would have taken the crown.
if this song reprsented belgium in 2009, i am not sure that they would even qualify.. good but such an average song for me... belgium's succes was the shock of 2003.. normally competition should be between turkey, russia, iceland and spain in 2003
@ axel
thx for that info. also michael von der heide will sing for switzerland. he participated in the german final in 1999, with " bye bye bar"
Guys run to eurosong.be where you can listen to the first demo of the Dutch song... it is...... absolutely hilarious... in a really bad bad bad way. We have the first contender for the last position.
The list of 36 reactions is divided into 2 pages. Choose a page:
1 | 2
React yourself
This news article is older than one week. Reacting to articles is only possible in the first week after publication.
