The official video of the Belgian Eurovision Song Contest 2009 entry, Copy Cat by Patrick Ouchène, features a famous comics hero : le Chat (the cat), created by cartoonist and comedian Philippe Geluck. On his personal website, the man, well-known in the French-speaking countries, explains how he was asked to take part in this year's Belgian Eurovision adventure by the RTBF.
"I was a bit surprised that the Cat could be associated to a rock'n roll song", the man says. "But Jacques Duvall – the lyricist and producer of the song – told me that, since the 1930's, Cat means Trendy in the world of jazz and rock. In his early years, Elvis Presley was nicknamed The Hillbilly Cat. Like the lyrics say, the requested cat should be too fat to rock'n roll. The casting was obvious : it had to be Le Chat and no one else! I quickly got excited by the project. In fact, Belgium is a bit like Graceland (Presley's estate), but a better one. And after the Eurovision experience, we hope Belgians will all wear rock quiff and sequined jacket, and will all drive a pink Cadillacs! "
With Copy Cat, Patrick Ouchène will represent Belgium in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, on May 12th in Moscow. The entry will be performed 3rd in the show. This is the second time French-speaking Belgium takes part with a song in English.
An article by Dominique Dufaut
