Pierre Rapsat (born Pierre Raepsaet, 28 May 1948 – 20 April 2002) was a Belgian singer-songwriter who had a very successful career in his homeland and also spells of popularity in other

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

countries. Outside these areas, he is best known for his participation in the 1976

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

Early life and career

Rapsat was born in the

Ixelles ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Brussels' city centre, it is geographically bisected by the City of Brussels. It is also bordered by the muni ...

municipality of Brussels to a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

father and a mother of Asturian descent. When Rapsat was 10 years old the family moved to

Verviers Verviers (; wa, Vervî) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Ensival, Heusy, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Verviers. It is also the ...

, which remained his home for the rest of his life. He started performing with various groups before launching a solo career in 1973. His musical style was eclectic, ranging from rock to

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic s ...

, but at this stage earned him little success.

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1976 Rapsat's self-composed song "

Judy et Cie Belgium was represented by Pierre Rapsat, with the song "Judy et Cie", at the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 April in The Hague. Rapsat was the winner of the Belgian national final for the contest, held on 21 January. Befor ...

" ("Judy and Co.") was chosen as the Belgian entry for the twenty first

, which took place on 3 April in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. With its haunting melody and melancholy lyrics, it was an unusual and atypical song for Eurovision at that time. In a strong field, it finished the evening in eighth place out of 18 entries, and is often cited by Eurovision fans as being among Belgium's best.

Later career

Rapsat's first major success post-Eurovision came in 1982 with the album ''Lâchez les fauves'' which sold 30,000 copies in

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

. The albums ''Ligne claire'' (1984) and ''J'aime ça'' (1986) also sold well, and marked Rapsat's first success in the French market. He continued to release albums to critical acclaim in Belgium throughout the 1990s, although during this period his French success abated. It was not until the release of ''Dazibao'' in 2001 that he broke out of the Belgian market once again to enjoy widespread success and acclaim in other Francophone countries. ''Dazibao'' marked a major comeback for Rapsat in France and was also very popular in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

Death

In 2001 Rapsat was diagnosed with cancer and was forced to cut down on live appearances while he underwent

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

. He made his final live appearance at a concert in

Ath Ath (; nl, Aat, ; pcd, Ât; wa, Ate) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Arbre, Ath, Bouvignies, Ghislenghien, Gibecq, Houtaing, ...

on 1 March 2002. Rapsat died at his home in Verviers on 20 April 2002, aged 53.obituary
Radio France Internationale

Le plus grand Belge

In 2005 the Belgian television channel

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

broadcast a show called ''

Le plus grand Belge ''Les plus grands Belges'' ( French for "The Greatest Belgians"), is a television show that aired in 2005 on the Belgian French-speaking public channel RTBF. In the program the audience could vote for the greatest Belgian by using the website, se ...

'' (''The Greatest Belgian'') in which viewers were invited to cast their vote by Internet, SMS or telephone. Rapsat was voted into 51st place.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rapsat, Pierre 1948 births 2002 deaths Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Belgium 20th-century Belgian male singers Belgian pop singers Belgian singer-songwriters Deaths from cancer in Belgium Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1976 Musicians from Brussels Walloon musicians