NIEUWSARCHIEF

Periode : 2-3 januari 2001
In dit deel : De genomineerden voor de ZAMU-awards 2000, terugblik op het jaar 2000.

January 3, 2001

GOUDEN METROPOOL
Gazet van Antwerpen, on the other hand, is calling for votes in their contest "De Gouden Metropool" (the golden metropole - a fine name with me, but maybe the "brown" metropole would've been a better name?). In the category "Music", the nominees are Novastar (again), Hooverphonic (again!) and K3.
Voting for this award can be done on this page.

January 2, 2001

LISTS & STUFF
"Looking back, on the road behind", is the first line of Jan Leyer's hit "Only your love will do" , and a sound suggestion for what everybody should be doing in these first days of this new week, month, year, century and millenium.

Kicking off with a highly subjective year-in-review:
A YEAR IN BELGIAN MUSIC
Despite a very large number of releases (have there ever been more full CD's by belgian artists & bands than in 2001? And have there ever been more of those with "major" record companies?), I found the year 2000 as such not a very exciting one, contrary to the "hype" that still reigns the press. dEUS was missed dearly, Noordkaap's farewell left a bitter feeling, K's Choice can't seem to keep the momentum going.
On the international level there were the adventures of Hooverphonic & Praga Khan in the US, and of Soulwax in the UK, but shouldn't the bro's be making a new album? Via, Heaven Hotel & Oyster records went bankrupt, PIAS was sold to the Germans. The folk-world made a breakthrough to the record companies, but apart from Laïs not yet to the public. And which are the bands that came storming on the stage to make it big the next years? (Venus in Flames? Admiral Freebee? Kamino? Rumplestitchkin? Angelico? as usual: only time will tell)
On the up side, there were the breaktroughs to the "general public" by Novastar & Hooverphonic, at last the release of the first Das Pop-album, and a very sound general level on almost all releases. Other plusses were that Wallonia is finally also starting to generate some interesting bands (Sharko, Vanilla Coke, Mud Flow, Airlock, Venus ...), and that it is finally allowed to have some good-time music without thinking too much about the street-credibity of it all (Whodads, El tattoo del Tigre, Wawadadakwa).
Put in list-form, this lot sums up the year for me:
1. Novastar "Novastar"
2. Das Pop "I Love"
3. Bruno "Down the Road"
4. Hooverphonic "The Magnificent Tree"
5. Thou "Put us in Tune"
6. Tom Helsen "Tom is doing great"
7. Dead Man Ray "Trap"
8. Buscemi "Our Girl in Havana"
9. K's Choice "Almost Happy"
10. Jan De Wilde "Oude Maan"
The outlook for 2001 is looking quite interesting however, because the new year should see releases by Zita Swoon, Mauro, de Mens, Pieter-Jan de Smet, Lunascape's debut, Zop Hopop's 2nd album, Monza's first releases, Millionaire (Tim Vanhamel), DAAU, and a dEUS-compilation.
As for this site (still a non-commercial, one-man initiative, btw) 2000 has been incredible (a Zamu-award as "best media" in March, E-publisher of the year by Inside Internet in September, interview in the Zipt-studio in November...), crowned with an amazing number of visitors (over 600,000! 1999 had almost 300,000, the first year 64,000). I wonder how on earth 2001 could be able to top that.

LISTS
- De Eindafrekening (the listeners chart to the Flemish alternative radio Studio Brussel) had considerably less Belgian entries than last year (which had a record 10), but still more than usual: Arid defended the honours at n°2 with "Me & My Melody", Hooverphonic was at n°6 with "Vinegar & Salt" and at n°16 with "Mad About You", while K's Choice finished at n°15 with "Almost Happy" and Novastar at 26 with "Lost & Blown Away".
- Donna's Top 2000 of all times had about 180 Belgian bands & artist in it, with the most of them being by Clouseau, Raymond van het Groenewoud & De Kreuners. Highest up in the list was the sentimental "Afscheid van een vriend" by Clouseau.
- IFPI & Ultratop listed the best-selling albums of the year even before Christmas, and as was already the case last years, their figures show a very different picture in the North & the South of the country: in Flanders, almost 1/3 of the best selling albums are of Belgian descent! The album top 100 wasn't led by Helmut Lotti for the first time in a long while, but K3 (with 2 albums) & Novastar also managed to be in the 10 best-selling albums of 2000. In the singles top 100 Big Brother almost topped the list, and the Belgian entries in that list are likewise mostly commercial bullshit & kid's stuff (exception : Hooverphonic at 73 with "Mad about You"). In the sales from Wallonia on the other hand, you need a magnifying glass to find the Belgian entries : in the album top 100 there are only 7 Belgian releases (Lotti, Axelle Red, Hooverphonic, Maurane, Marc Aryan, Gauff' au Suc). The singles-list has even fewer. Also interesting : the list of 50 Belgian albums in Flanders, and the list of 50 Belgian singles in Flanders.

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