"Bellekes hier, bellekes daor"
.
In 1978 Belgian singer "Stafke Fabri" recorded the album "Karstmis in Antwarepe" which would go on to become his biggest selling success of all time! Stafke who sang in the Antwerp dialect wanted to have a choir on his album. I don't know if you're familiar with the Belgian music scene but it's very hard to find a choir that sings in dialect here in Belgium. Since he and his family are very good friends with my parents he knew that I could sing a little. That was back in the day before my voice changed cause now I can't sing anymore! Because of this he asked me if I would be interested in doing some backing vocals on a couple of tracks... He also asked if I knew some other girls and boys who could sing a little to join me. I was still skating at the time so I had a lot of volunteers to sing along. Except me there were only three others I selected being Genevieve Schoumacker, Chantal Schoumacker and Hendrik Sassen. Paul van Oosterwijck who worked with children choir "The Bosuiltjes" took care of our vocals. Don't forget that we never had sung professionally before (and after) so it was necessary he did... The day we went into the studio was somewhere in May. I remember that it was very warm outside but we had to go into the studio to sing some Christmas songs! There were two songs that we had to do; "Stille nacht, Heilige nacht" (Silent night) and "Bellekes hier, Bellekes daor" (Jingle bells). During the rehearsals 5 weeks prior to recording both songs went well and Stafke and Paul were very proud of us! Paul even asked us if we would consider to become a part of his choir! Now getting in the studio and seeing all these other people there like the producer and engineer and some other musicians we all four got very nervous! It took us about 1 hour before we all did relax a little, so we sang "Bellekes" over and over and over... What we didn't know was that we all had to record it solo! We thought that we were going to do it as a group, after all we were "The Disckes" which stands for Deurne Ice Skating Club Kunstschaatsen. One by one we did our solo and none of us could handle the high notes which drove the producer nuts! Time is money you know! Anyway, we lost another hour and not one word was sung that they could use on the record! By now we also could feel the stress from Stafke and Paul and that didn't help us either! In a final attempt to make us feel more relaxed they gave us half an hour rest. Giving them the chance to have a crisis meeting I guess. LOL After that they demanded us back inside and gave us some red wine to drink! I drank two glasses cause I like wine although I was only 12 years old at the time. I would turn 13 two months later. After our glass of wine we went in again and recorded the song as pro's! We did each our solo part twice and as a choir in 3 times that's why you get the feeling that there's a whole choir singing while in reality it's only four people! For "Stille nacht" we were still facing the problem that one of us wasn't allowed to sing on the recording. He couldn't reach the high notes and no it wasn't me! The three of us were so proud that we could do it but by the time the record was released "Stille nacht" was still without a choir leaving "Bellekes hier, bellekes daor" the only song ever I sang on which has been released.
Here's a link to "Bellekes hier, bellekes daor" see if you could hear me sing? I'm the one who produces the loudest JAOO:
http://download.yousendit.com/093E03AE5E5503F8
.
In 1978 Belgian singer "Stafke Fabri" recorded the album "Karstmis in Antwarepe" which would go on to become his biggest selling success of all time! Stafke who sang in the Antwerp dialect wanted to have a choir on his album. I don't know if you're familiar with the Belgian music scene but it's very hard to find a choir that sings in dialect here in Belgium. Since he and his family are very good friends with my parents he knew that I could sing a little. That was back in the day before my voice changed cause now I can't sing anymore! Because of this he asked me if I would be interested in doing some backing vocals on a couple of tracks... He also asked if I knew some other girls and boys who could sing a little to join me. I was still skating at the time so I had a lot of volunteers to sing along. Except me there were only three others I selected being Genevieve Schoumacker, Chantal Schoumacker and Hendrik Sassen. Paul van Oosterwijck who worked with children choir "The Bosuiltjes" took care of our vocals. Don't forget that we never had sung professionally before (and after) so it was necessary he did... The day we went into the studio was somewhere in May. I remember that it was very warm outside but we had to go into the studio to sing some Christmas songs! There were two songs that we had to do; "Stille nacht, Heilige nacht" (Silent night) and "Bellekes hier, Bellekes daor" (Jingle bells). During the rehearsals 5 weeks prior to recording both songs went well and Stafke and Paul were very proud of us! Paul even asked us if we would consider to become a part of his choir! Now getting in the studio and seeing all these other people there like the producer and engineer and some other musicians we all four got very nervous! It took us about 1 hour before we all did relax a little, so we sang "Bellekes" over and over and over... What we didn't know was that we all had to record it solo! We thought that we were going to do it as a group, after all we were "The Disckes" which stands for Deurne Ice Skating Club Kunstschaatsen. One by one we did our solo and none of us could handle the high notes which drove the producer nuts! Time is money you know! Anyway, we lost another hour and not one word was sung that they could use on the record! By now we also could feel the stress from Stafke and Paul and that didn't help us either! In a final attempt to make us feel more relaxed they gave us half an hour rest. Giving them the chance to have a crisis meeting I guess. LOL After that they demanded us back inside and gave us some red wine to drink! I drank two glasses cause I like wine although I was only 12 years old at the time. I would turn 13 two months later. After our glass of wine we went in again and recorded the song as pro's! We did each our solo part twice and as a choir in 3 times that's why you get the feeling that there's a whole choir singing while in reality it's only four people! For "Stille nacht" we were still facing the problem that one of us wasn't allowed to sing on the recording. He couldn't reach the high notes and no it wasn't me! The three of us were so proud that we could do it but by the time the record was released "Stille nacht" was still without a choir leaving "Bellekes hier, bellekes daor" the only song ever I sang on which has been released.
Here's a link to "Bellekes hier, bellekes daor" see if you could hear me sing? I'm the one who produces the loudest JAOO:
http://download.yousendit.com/093E03AE5E5503F8
.
posted by Patrick at Tuesday, December 19, 2006
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