The first Mia’s since February 2020 awarded as many as 13 different artists. Angèle and Metejoor stood out just that little bit: they each won three statuettes.
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The 14th edition of the Music Industry Awards, the most important Flemish prizes for pop music, has been delayed for a while. The 2021 edition was canceled due to the corona pandemic, and the 2022 edition, which was scheduled for February 3, also had to be postponed due to lockdowns. For example, we received an exceptional double edition that had to laud the best artists from 2020 and 2021.
That flower moment was not unimportant. The attention paid to the nominations and the award ceremony – with a show that is broadcast in prime time on One – always translates into a not bad sales spike for the artists involved. After two years of pandemic suffering, that is of course welcome.
And so Camille, Meskerem Mees and Sylvie Kreusch, among others, were allowed to play in the hearts of the viewers during the show from Palace 12. Danira Boukhriss Terkessidis talked the evening together: she said that in the history of the Mia’s ‘there had never been so much voting by the public’. It is striking that the audience is quite steadfast. Bazart has already won the Mia for ‘Best group’ for the fourth time in five editions – Clouseau only broke through that winning streak in 2019. Balthazar gets to take home ‘Alternative’ for the second time in a row (and the third time in total). The ‘Hip-hop’ category has only been added for two years, but was hijacked for the second time by Tourist Lemc. And Willy Sommers also succeeded herself, in the category ‘Flemish popular’. There was even a pattern among the losers: after Zwangere Guy did not cash in on any of his seven nominations in the previous edition, the Brussels rapper now also lagged behind with a zero out of five.
The most emphatic hegemony, however, is that of Angèle. The Brussels woman has already won ‘Solo woman’ for the third time in a row, ‘Pop’ for the second time in a row, and also in ‘Hit of the year’ she doubles: in 2019 she won the main prize for ‘Tout oublier’ , and in 2021 she did so with “Fever,” for which she provides guest vocals on Dua Lipa. The singer, who performed ‘Bruxelles, je t’aime’ during the show herself, said during the show that she was especially proud that such a song brimming with Belgitude also became a hit in France, and that she was grateful for all the Flemish support, despite the faltering Dutch in her words of thanks. With 11 figurines in total, after this edition she comes in third place in the Mia ranking of all time, after Milow (12) and Stromae (17).
From sports teacher to pop musician
Among all those fixed values, the most striking newcomer was Metejoor. On his debut at the Mia’s, he was nominated in four categories, and came out on top in three of them. His award in the ‘Breakthrough’ category was therefore logical – Kempenaar, born as Joris Van Rossem, was also allowed to take the prizes for ‘Dutch’ and ‘Solo man’.
During his acceptance speech, Metejoor uttered the winged words ‘god damn what is this‘ and thanked his sister Lisa, who introduced him to producer Hans Francken five years ago. After all, their collaboration resulted in hits such as ‘Rendez-Vous’ and ‘1 op 1 million’, soft love duets with the Dutch singers Emma Heesters and Babet. On Spotify, those songs easily exceed 10 million streams, which is not obvious for Flemish pop. The self-titled debut album, which features both songs, was number 1 in the Ultratop for four weeks in November 2021.
For Van Rossem, the Mia’s are the culmination of a top year, in which he was also featured in the VTM programs. A real job, Dancing with the stars in The Voice Kids† It is still getting used to the pressure that this entails, said the former sports teacher and student counselor recently The Importance Of Limburg: there he described how he recently cycled home crying after the carnival in Vosselaar. “For five hours, I was stopped by people who wanted to make movies with me, wanted a photo, an autograph… While I just wanted to relax with my friends.” But he can enjoy the stage intensely, he said in the same interview. ‘The first minutes of a show I am always overcome with emotions. Then I think: see me standing here now. I would never have dreamed of this five years ago.’
The winners
Hit of the Year 2020: ‘Come Closer’ by Regi ft Jake Reese and OT
Hit of the year 2021: ‘Fever’ by Angèle & Dua Lipa
Pop: Angela
Solo woman: Angele
Breakthrough: Metejoor
Dutch: Metejoor
Solo man: Metejoor
Dance: Regi
Group: Bazaar
Alternative: Balthazar
Live act: Balthazar
Album: Bart Peeters
Hiphop: Tourist Lemc
Flemish popular: Willy Sommers
Artwork: Sylvie Kreusch
Author: Stefaan Fernande
Musician: Mauro Pawlowski
Producer: Jasper Maekelberg
Videoclip: Charlotte Adigery
Lifetime achievement award: Soulsister
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