BELGIUM – Electronica-pop hybrid songwriter Blanche has had a meteoric rise since first dropping her debut single “City Light‘”. Three years and over 41 Million streams later, the rising artist is gearing up to release her debut album Empire.
“City Light” is a stunning electro-pop lead single that brings an element of melancholia, blending traditional instruments with analogue synth beauty.
The track was co-produced with Rich Cooper (Banks, Mystery Jets, Lucy Rose) and François Gustin (Girls In Hawaii), who also helped on the rest of the album. Watch the haunting video below.
Ellie Delvaux was born in Belgium, on 10 June 1999. She is Jewish and speaks French, English and Hebrew. As a child, she liked to sing to herself. She later attended some musical theatre classes and took part in school performances. When she turned 16, she auditioned for The Voice. After Eurovision, she hoped to complete secondary school in Belgium. Her stage name, “Blanche”, is her third name.
On 30 January 2020, Blanche announced that the single “Empire” would be released on 14 February 2020. The song was released a day earlier, on 13 February 2020. “Empire” is about people who wear shields to shield themselves from all emotions and ultimately deceive themselves.
A music video for the song premiered on the same day on Complex. The video was directed by Valéry Joseph and filmed at Studio Stories in Ghent. The video’s imagery was inspired by surrealist paintings, particularly those of Gertrude Abercrombie.
In the video, there is limited movement, instead, it relies on bold outfits, colours and lighting to express an emotional message of “fear, power, abandonment, pain, introversion, self-unveiling, trust and authenticity”.
Blanche started writing the song in her studio in Brussels in November 2017, but the song continued to evolve with the involvement of new collaborators, until it was completed in March 2019. Blanche’s first album, Empire, will be released on 24 April 2020.
LYRICS
Empires fade away
A silly game that people play
I’m not of a kind
That loses faith
If all you wanna hear are lies
Don’t knock at my door
You would only realize
We’re waiting for the blur
We can only wait it out
I know I can make it stop
Maybe you should let it happen
And wait for the blur
It used to be a random place
Used to be a stranger’s face
Did it take you by surprise,
When it started to blur?
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
How long you can keep me on my throne
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
If we’re strong as we are
Strong as I am
Dithers fade away
Don’t know what I should have said
The blur made me blind
Alone I lay
I promise that you’ll find your love
You opened up the gates
You know how to find me
But you backed out
You let me down, you let me down, you think
You sent me down, you let me drown again
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
How long you can keep me on my throne
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
If we’re strong as we are
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
Everything we are
Hanging in fear
It’s a kind of fever for people
Strong as we are
It’s a fever for people, fever for people
Fever for people, fever for people
Fever for people, fever for people
Fever for people, fever for people
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
How long you can keep me on my throne
Won’t you be the one who,
Leads me to the unknown?
And I’m waiting, wonderin’
If we’re strong as we are
Strong as we are
