Gentenaars Vote: Gabriel Rios or ABBA for New Carillon Songs

Gentenaars faces an important choice: until 27 March they can decide which songs they will hear more than 10,000 times on Sint-Baafsplein in the next two years. Until that day, the biennial mood runs over a new playlist for the carillon in the Belfort. Every day between 8 and 22 hours it automatically plays a song of about 30 seconds every fifteen minutes.

‘Klokke Roeland’, an unofficial anthem for many people from Ghent, is standard on that play list. For the other places, the city offered its inhabitants a shortlist with “timeless classics such as ABBA and Jacques Brel, but also Turkish pearls”. The latter concerns songs from poet Aşık Veysel, who became a star in the 1930s, and Sezen Aksu, a singer who is seen as the founder of Turkish pop music in the 1970s. Also ‘Broad Daylight’, the breakthrough single of the Puerto Gentenaar Gabriel Rios, is on list.

No techno

Before it came to that shortlist, the city first sent around thirty songs to carillonneur Kenneth Theunissen. In doing so, the board takes into account the context in which we live, he explained Gentenaar. “With ‘Ode an Die Freude’ the European national anthem is on the list, and the two Turkish songs are also a way to involve other population groups.”

Theunissen then selects songs that are feasible on the drum: partly because of that, for example, there are no techno numbers on the list. “Techno consists mainly of fast percussion and little melody, which is usually short and repetitive. So that would be a boring and almost unavoidable piece of music. Also beautiful songs that always sing on the same note, sound ugly on a carillon.”

Criticism

Nevertheless, this time the selection procedure was also adjusted for other reasons. At the most recent city council, N-VA councilor Karlijn Deene asked if no Gent‘s national anthem should be added to the list-which had been criticized through social media some traction. Ships of Culture Astrid De Bruycker (for Ghent) intervened quickly. “I understand the criticism and I also think that a Ghent national anthem in addition to ‘Klokke Roeland’ cannot be missing. We have therefore decided to add ‘Ah, Rosalie’ van Walter de Buck to the playground anyway.”

‘Ah, Rosalie’ stranded in fourth place in the previous election. Then ‘Les Yeux de Ma Mère’ by Arno, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen and ‘I Don’t Wanna Dance’ by Lady Lynn at the longest end. The two years earlier ‘in my stroat’ by Walter de Buck, ‘we will continue’ by Ramses Shaffy and ‘two girls’ from Raymond van het Groenewoud over Sint-Baafsplein.

Gentenaars can still vote for the two remaining places in the playground until 27 March. The winners will be announced on 3 April. They will be heard from Easter Sunday April 20. For those who want a preview, Theunissen made a version on a digital carillon.

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