Blog Post #2

 

This is my revised version Blog post #2 as of Mar. 10, 2022.

Mia Johnson

22WQ UCOR 1400 Eurovision

Feb 22, 2022

Belgium’s Acapella Performance

“With Love Baby” (Belgium 2011) was sung by a group called Witloof Bay, during the Eurovision Singing Contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. The performance was an encapsulation of Belgium's sense of national identity with the group's singular aspects that were unique to them but with an overall simple essence. Witloof Bay is composed of 6 singers: Benoît Giaux, RoxorLoops, Florence Huby, Etienne Debaisieux, Nicolas Dorian, and Alexia Saffery. According to an interview from after their first practice at Eurovision with ESCtoday.com, Witloof Bay was founded in 2005 by Benoît and Florence by asking their friends to sing acapella with them which was a genre they really enjoyed. Each person has a specific role in the group; Benoît is the songwriter and composer as well as the baritone, RoxorLoops is beatboxer as well as a composer, Florence sings alto, Etienne is the bass singer, Nicolas is the tenor, and Alexia is the soprano. Nicolas said in an interview with ESC radio that Alexia had to be the replacement to Mathilde Sevrin who was the original soprano member but was on maternity leave during Eurovision. The group has such a unique sound because they all were trained classically and they paired with RoxorLoops who is the vice-champion of the beatboxing world. An additional fact from the interview with Nicholas previously referenced was he described how the group’s name “Witloof Bay” is supposed to be representative of Belgian humor because in a direct translation “Witloof” in Flemish, a national language in Belgium, means chicory which is a popular vegetable eaten in Belgium, and “Bay” they decided because it sounded like a destination spot or a t.v. show name when put together. What makes Witloof Bay special is that they are not only a group of people singing but they sing acapella style, meaning there are no music backings or instruments involved at all. Therefore they had to practice so much more because there was no orchestra support and it was all reliant on them. 

According to an article on wiwibloggs.com about Witloof Bay’s first practice the author William Lee Adams predicted that “With Love Baby” would receive 0 points and no one in Europe was going to enjoy the performance since it’s acapella. “With Love Baby” did better than expected by only missing making it to the final by 1 point. The performance in Düsseldorf was one that focused less on the extravagance of Eurovision and more on the singing. The members during the performance were wearing formal clothes that fit in the 2011 style although none of them were dressed cohesively. Many had different styles of formal and no one matched completely. Although in the promotional video broadcasted in anticipation for Witloof Bay’s performance at Eurovision, their costumes were much more cohesive. They all were dressed in more of a 1950’s vibe and with the men all having a pop of orange color in their outfit.  Additionally in the video it was black and white the entire time up until the end when the camera started to move and then it became really bright and you could see the color that the members were all wearing. This was more representative of the theme of the song being that love conquers all and the goal of bringing people together. 

During the performance there weren’t many aspects of Eurovision that weren’t utilized to the max for example the lights used; it was sporadic groups of lines of light moving around at different angles in the background. The camera work was more utilized, the opening shot was one that bring a lot of attention to the group as a whole because it starts by just having the entire group in frame but then it zooms in one of the members as he starts to sing and as he spins, the camera zooms back out to the group again as a whole when they all start to sing together. Throughout the performances the cameras had a tendency to zoom in on a performer when their solo section of the song came up but after that just having a wide angle shot of the entire group. The choreography for this performance is also not complex; they have certain formations for specific parts of the song and certain hand movements at specific beats and times but a majority of the choreography in the performance is made up of just walking around and each performer adding their own flair to basic movements. The reason for this was because they already had 6 people on stage singing, therefore there was no room for dancers. Witloof Bay had to create the music and vocals from their voices at the same time as trying to perform and keep the audience interested. Another special thing about the performance was the use of beatboxing. It takes the basic pop music they were singing and elevates it with a flair that isn’t used often in performances. 

The lyrics of “With Love Baby” don’t stray far from the title, it tends to repeat “with love, with love baby” frequently. Not overtly stated from the group but from the title you can notice the play on words they did with their song title as it sounds quite similar to Witloof Bay. Suggesting that when Witloof Bay does anything they do it with love. Which is reflective of the overall song just expressing how when you do something and live life you should do it with love. While they are even singing they specifically say when they sing this song they sing it with love. During an interview from Eurovision Song Contest Radio with Nicolas Dorian, Nicolas was asked why “With Love Baby” was not being sung in French because Witloof Bay is known to echo classic Belgian music. Nicolas responded that “With Love Baby” existed before they even decided to be involved in Eurovision and it was written originally in English. They decided to keep it as English because it is a more universal language that more people will be able to enjoy. In their album they released in 2008 they mostly sang in French and in English showing that they frequently use different languages not solely English. The lyrics are quite reflective of the national identity of Belgium. Previously stated in blog post #1 Belgium is lacking a sense of national identity. Throughout many of their performances there isn’t a deep message or a sense of nationalism. This lack of nationalism is also relevant in their costumes, background visuals, and choreography with none of those aspects of their performances ever standing out in comparison to other countries such as “Birth of a New Age” from the Netherlands in 2021 which had a strong message and eye-catching features. Due to Belgium having such an unclear sense of national identity the country is more welcoming to immigrants which can tie into the fact that Witloof Bay’s performance would be easy for any viewer to watch or listen to. Although Belgium is lacking national identity there are certain aspects that are very special to Belgium. This would be extremely similar to the fact that although Witloof Bay doesn’t have many super unique aspects to their performance there are certain factors that stand out amongst other performances. Specifically the fact that they are an acapella performance. As stated before acapella is a genre that isn’t done frequently in Eurovision many would say it's a rarity, similar to how having several national languages is a rarity in a country. Belgium has three national languages which is something that isn’t common amongst many nations therefore it's a part of their national identity that makes them a very unique country in the aspect of language. Due to these different national languages Belgium also has two broadcasting stations one in the dutch speaking region and one in the french speaking region every year they switch off on who chooses the entry to send to Eurovision this is to avoid conflict between the two regions. According to Witloof Bay’s performance and the background research it is difficult to discover nuances of national history, appropriation, or simulation because the performance is meant to be less representative and more light-hearted and loving.

In conclusion, Witloof Bay and their performance of “With Love Baby” is very reflective of Belgium as a country because it has both unique and simple aspects. They kept their performance simplistic and slick so the audience could focus more on the intense vocals that are used and less on the extravagance of Eurovision and what that entails. The essence of Witloof Bay is that they like to have fun and to keep their music light by reminding everyone with their performance to do everything with love. After the massive amount of exposure of Witloof Bay they haven't been very active as a group in music in the most recent years. Although they did release a single in 2013 called “Elle s’en va” but nothing after that. Many of the group members started to work on their own music.  

References:

E. (2011, May 3). Belgium 2011: Interview with Witloof Bay [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZJrvxX5-4o&feature=youtu.be

Witloof Bay. (2011). “With Love Baby” (Belgium). Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Düsseldorf. Youtube. https://youtu.be/nTLAzDVu80E 

Adams, W. L. (2016, October 12). Belgium: Witloof Bay's first rehearsal. wiwibloggs. 

Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://wiwibloggs.com/2011/05/03/belgium-witloof-bays-first-rehearsal/10808/ 

Mourinho, D. (2011, April 8). With Love baby! – Belgium's Witloof Bay in exclusive interview. 

ESC Radio - Eurovision Song Contest Eurosong Webradio. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.escradio.com/2011/04/with-love-baby-meet-witloof-bay-on-esc-radio-exclusive-interview-friday-8th-april-at-1500-cest/ 

Witloof Bay. (2022, January 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witloof_Bay