Blanche, who represents Belgium in Eurovision 2017, is a talented singer, whose personality matches her voice – fragile but strong.
Her real name is Ellie Delvaux and, being 17 years old, she is one of the youngest contestants this year.
Blanche successfully performed in the first semi-final on May 9 and thus qualified for the grand final, which will be held on May 13 at the International Exhibition Center in Kyiv.
Though the singer looked confident while performing, she was struggling to enjoy the moment as it was stressful.
“Mostly I feel a good kind of stress but this time I felt really uncomfortable,” she said. “I wasn’t in a total control of what I was doing.”
Earlier during the rehearsals and the performance for the jury Blanche felt much better and couldn’t expect it would be that difficult to focus on the song and her voice at the semi-final.
“I told myself no, please, not now,” she said.
Belgian participant says she didn’t expect the audience would react as warm as they did.
“I said ‘hello’ and everyone was going crazy,” she said.
The young singer has recently started a professional career and didn’t plan to participate in Eurovision.
She took part in The Voice Belgique, which is a francophone version of the singing television show, when Pierre Dumoulin, a Belgian singer and songwriter, noticed her talent.
Blanche says that Dumoulin contacted her as he liked her inspiring voice.
The artistic duo started working together and created three songs, including “City Lights,” which is now the contestant’s entry in the Eurovision 2017.
The label Blanche works with has sent the songs to the RTBF, Belgian television channel that broadcasts Eurovision for the francophone audience. The label wanted to share the new songs of the new artist with no intention to compete in the Belgian selection.
“We wanted to take some time to work, write songs with Pierre and develop my style. Eurovision was a big step and we didn’t know if it was a good idea,” the contestant said.
Nevertheless, RTBF thought “City Lights” was a great song for Eurovision and offered the singer to take her chances.
The process of Belgian selection is quite complicated compared to other countries. French- and Dutch-speaking parts of Belgium send their representatives one after another every year and select them separately, as the television is divided into two parts. The francophone part has no live competitions – instead, artists send songs and the jury chooses the future contestant.
The offer from RTBF took Blanche by surprise and she had to make her decision immediately in the middle of her regular day.
“I was at school, when Pierre called me, so I went out of the class to talk and he asked if I would like to participate in the Belgian selection,” she said.
The singer agreed and later in the day received a message with congratulations on being selected.
Though it wasn’t the whole country that gave Blanche an honor to represent it in Eurovision, she hopes to overcome the stress in the final and make all Belgians proud of her.
“I want to be able to say to everyone and to myself that it’s the best performance I’ve ever done,” the contestant said.
