World Song Contest

32 countries showed their interest for this edition of the World Song Contest. One year and a month after the first edition started, the quality was still here, and will probably rise again and again. This time, quality also meant diversity. With songs going from Metal to Jazz, Ballads to Pop music, Samba to Retro... There was something for everyone.

4 countries were directly qualified for the final. For the 20 remaining spot, all was decided in the qualifying round. Poland, which usually achieved good results, was probably the big shock of this edition. Despite 3 bonus points received for originality, the song didn't manage to qualify. France, one of the four finalist, didn't vote for the qualifying round and was then disqualified, which allowed Denmark to go through.

No real big names in the final, after Bryan Adams and Andrea Bocelli were both eliminated in the qualifying round, but some familiar name in WSC. Mustafa Sandal, for Turkey, Kim-Lian, for The Netherlands and Annett Louisan for Germany made a great come back in the competition reaching the top 10. A premiere for Germany which finally found a way to the top with a 4th position.

The Netherlands and Sweden were the main rivals of Belgium during the live coverage. But with 5 "12 points" received, Belgium took an early advantage and keep the first position from the first vote to the last one. Laïs, with Kalima Kadara, gave Belgium a second victory in the contest's history.

Results of the qualifying round

* When there's a tie, the difference is made by the number of votes received by each country, or if it's not possible to decide a winner, by the number of 12 pts received (and so on untill we can make the difference)...

* France was disqualified as no votes were received for the qualifying round

* DNQ: Did Not Qualify - DSQ: Disqualified

Laïs (Celtic for voice) is a Flemish group, bringing contemporary folk and world music in a unique manner. The female vocal trio part of Laïs are three young women from Kalmthout:

• Jorunn Bauweraerts
• Annelies Brosens
• Nathalie Delcroix

They are accompanied by four men:

• Fritz Sundermann (electric and acoustic instruments, harmonium)
• Hans Quaghebeur (squeezeboxes, hurdy-gurdy, whistle)
• Ronny Reuman (percussion)
• Bart Denolf (electric and acoustic bass)

They're known especially for their polyphonic close harmony songs, occasionally a capella, based on self-composed melodies with lyrics dating back to the Middle Ages. Their career started in 1994, when Jorunn and Annelies performed a song at the folk festival in Gooik, near Brussels. Nathalie joined the group somewhat later. They had their breakthrough after their appearance at the folkfestival of Dranouter, near Ypres, in 1996. Their debut CD album was released in 1998. They performed in South Africa, Canada, France (as a supporting program for Sting), the Netherlands and China. In April 2004 they released their third CD to the market under the title Douce Victime, with covers from Jacques Brel and Herman van Veen. It was recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London.