Belgium’s Jérémie Makiese makes it to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest
The Belgian candidate for the Eurovision Song Contest Jérémie Makiese has made it through the final of this year’s competition. The 21-year-old Antwerp-born singer put in a strong performance of his song “Miss You” to earn a place in Saturday’s final. The bi-lingual geology student was the winner of the 2021 The Voice Belgique singing competition. He was selected by the Francophone public broadcaster RTBF to represent Belgium at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest that is being held in the Italian city of Turin.
In addition to Belgium, the Czech Republic, Azerbaijan, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Australia, Sweden and Serbia also made it through to the final. They will join the 10 countries that qualified during the first semi-final on Tuesday evening and Spain, the UK, France, Germany and Italy that qualify directly as their public broadcasters foot a large portion of the bill for the contest.
Belgium’s candidate Jérémie Makiese was born in Antwerp to Congolese parents. When he was 6 Jérémie, his parents, his three brothers and his sister moved to the Brussels municipicality of Sint-Agatha-Berchem. He spent his youth in Sint-Agatha-Berchem and in the neighbouring Flemish Brabant municipality of Dilbeek.
He started singing at a young age in the church choir and took singing lessons at school. Also a keen sportsman, Jérémie Makiese signed a one-year contract with the Belgian Second Division club Excelsior Virton at the start of the 2021-2022 season. By this time he had already won The Voice Belgique.
After winning The Voice Belgique Jérémie decided to take a break from his studies.