Belgian artist and Eurovision 2017 representative Blanche is one of the winners of the EBBA 2018.

The European Border Breakers Awards, or EBBA, are the annual European music awards for emerging artists who have had outstanding success across Europe. Young singer Blanche from Belgium is one of the happy winners to receive this year’s award.

On the website of the EBBA, Blanche is praised:

Blanche first stepped into the spotlight when she represented Belgium at the semi-final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. It’s hard to imagine a better version of the folky song City Lights, but she did it again in the final, and it earned her fourth place. The young Belgian singer has a soothing, husky voice that recalls Lorde and London Grammar’s Hannah Reid. Blanche is signed to PIAS, and with just this one song released, which has racked-up over 20 million streams to date, it is safe to say the world is eager to see and hear more.

Blanche is of course very happy and proud to have received the award, as she shared on her official Facebook page:

Ten artists will ultimately receive an EBBA 2018: Singer-songwriter Skott (Pauline Skött) from Sweden and producer collective Off Bloom from Denmark have already joined Blanche as winners, the other victors will be announced in the coming weeks.

From among the ten winners, the artist with the most online votes by the general public will additionally receive the Public Choice Award.

The award ceremony will take place in the context of the Eurosonic Noorderslag Festival in Groningen, the Netherlands, 17 January 2018, in a spectacular show hosted by British musician and TV-personality Jools Holland.

The winning artists will also perform, and although the ceremony is invite-only, the whole show will be recorded and broadcast on public TV-stations throughout Europe.

About the EBBA

According to the official EBBA website:

The EBBA are co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, and organised by Eurosonic Noorderslag, in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union. The EBBA are supported by Buma Cultuur, Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Province of Groningen and the City of Groningen. With the EBBA, the European Union wishes to highlight the success of 10 debuting European artists in selling music and touring outside their home territory. These music awards aim to highlight Europe’s great cultural and linguistic diversity in popular music. The EBBA provide the opportunity for the public to discover emerging European artists, and for their music to be spread and enjoyed across Europe.

Former winners of the EBBA include Adele, Emeli Sandé, Stromae, 2005 Eurovision winner Elena Paparizou, Las Ketchup (Eurovision 2006), Arash (Eurovision 2009, together with AySel), Cascada (Eurovision 2013) and 2014 Eurovision runner’s up The Common Linnets.

Follow the EBBA or vote for the Public Choice Award via their YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

About Blanche

Blanche (born Ellie Delvaux, Brussels, 1999) is a young Belgian singer-songwriter with Ashkenazi Jewish roots.

Starting with singing, playing the guitar and piano from an early age, she gained public attention when she participated in the fifth season of the popular TV-show The Voice Belgique, where she joined the team of French musical duo Cats On Trees. Blanche made it to the live shows of the programme.

In November 2016, Walloon (French-Belgian) broadcaster RTBF revealed that they had selected Blanche to represent Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

At Eurovision, young Blanche gave an endearing performance of her entry City lights. She eventually reached an honourable 4th place, receiving 363 points. City lights became a huge hit across Europe.

Blanche is the sister of singer Oliver Lord (Oliver Ghnassia Langbord).

Enjoy Blanche performing City lights at the Grand Final of Eurovision 2017: