Louis Neefs (born Ludwig Adèle Maria Jozef Neefs, 8 August 1937, Gierle – 25 December 1980, Lier) was a Belgian singer and presenter, known for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contests of 1967 and 1969.

Early career

Neefs was training for a career in

technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering ...

at college in Mechelen when he joined the college choir and started learning to play guitar. At first his musical activities were purely recreational, but by the late 1950s he had become a member of a group called Sun Spot. Via performances and talent competitions, Neefs' distinctive singing voice came to the notice of famous musical talent scout Jacques Kluger, who had also discovered, among others,

Bobbejaan Schoepen Bobbejaan Schoepen (a pseudonym of Modest Schoepen; 16 May 1925 – 17 May 2010) was a Flemish pioneer in Belgian pop music, vaudeville, and European country music. Schoepen was a versatile entertainer, entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, guit ...

. Kluger and Schoepen brought Neefs to the attention of record companies, and he was signed to a contract in 1958, releasing his first album in 1960. He achieved several top 20 singles in the

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chart, and a modicum of success in the

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Eurovision Song Contest

In 1967, Neefs was chosen, with the song "

Ik heb zorgen Belgium was represented by Louis Neefs, with the song "Ik heb zorgen", at the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 8 April in Vienna. "Ik heb zorgen" was chosen at the Belgian national final on 25 February. Neefs would represent Belgi ...

" ("I Have Worries"), as the Belgian representative in the 12th Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 8 April in

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. "Ik heb zorgen" finished in seventh place of 17 entrants. In 1969, Neefs was again selected to represent Belgium, with the song "

Jennifer Jennings Belgium was represented by Louis Neefs, with the song "Jennifer Jennings", at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 29 March in Madrid. Neefs was chosen internally to be the Belgian representative, and the song was chosen in the ...

" in the 14th Eurovision, held in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

on 29 March. This resulted in another seventh-place finish, of 16 entrants.

Later career

Neefs continued to enjoy recording success, with the biggest hit of his career, "Margrietje", reaching No. 4 in 1972. He was also the "

voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

" of Thomas O'Malley in the Dutch-language version of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's ''

The Aristocats ''The Aristocats'' is a 1970 American animated romantic musical comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman. The 20th Disney animated feature film, the film is based on a story by Tom McGowan and Tom R ...

''. In tandem with his musical career, Neefs was a presenter of television and radio shows for Flemish broadcaster VRT. He also became politically active, standing as a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

in Mechelen.

Death

Neefs was killed in a road accident in Lier on 25 December 1980, aged 43. His wife Liliane also died in the accident. They had two sons, and ; the latter is now also a well-known singer in Belgium. On 5 August 2007, a

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of Neefs was unveiled in his hometown of Gierle to honour what would have been his 70th birthday."Gierle onthult zondag borstbeeld van zanger Louis Neefs"
''Gazet van Antwerpen'' (in Dutch) Asteroid 38018 Louisneefs, discovered by

Eric Elst Eric Walter Elst (30 November 1936 – 2 January 2022) was a Belgian astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle and a prolific discoverer of asteroids. The Minor Planet Center ranks him among the top 10 discoverers of minor planets ...

La Silla Observatory La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Several other telescopes are located at the site and are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is ...

in 1998, was named in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neefs, Louis 1937 births 1980 deaths Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Belgium 20th-century Belgian male singers Belgian pop singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1967 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1969 People from Antwerp Province Road incident deaths in Belgium