Results of latest vote

Visitors to famousbelgians.net have been voting during May which people should be added to the list of famous Belgians. The results are shown below :

1. Kate Ryan (26 votes)
2. Leo Martin (14 votes)
3. Technotronic (12 votes)
4. Rik de Saedeleer (5 votes)
5. Jos Ghijsen (5 votes)
6. Sabine Appelmans (2 votes)
7. Gaston Berghmans (2 votes)
8. Walter Capiau (0 votes)
9. Lynn Wesenbeek (0 votes)
10. None of the above (44 votes)

Kate Ryan comes out on top with 26 votes but that is not enough to be added to the list I'm afraid. More than 40 people thought nobody on the list was worthy and I quite agree.

For those of you who don't know Kate Ryan, she is a well-known Belgian singer who represented Belgium in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly, she didn't get through to the Final. Her official website is http://www.kateryan.be/. She recently recorded a modern version of France Gall's song "Ella, elle l'a" which did quite well and is not a bad dance tune.

Leo Martin (left in the picture) is a comedian from Antwerp who sadly died in 1993. He was one half of the massively popular comedy duo "Gaston en Leo" (Gaston Berghmans en Leo Martin), the Belgian equivalent to the British comedy duo Morecambe & Wise. Their most famous sketches were "Joske Vermeulen" and "De Gouden Leeuw". If you don't speak Dutch/Flemish you probably won't find it funny but it is hilarious if you understand the language. When Leo Martin died from lung cancer, it was a huge blow for his partner Gaston and he never really recovered from it. He is now 83 and, I suspect, still misses him terribly.

Technotronic are best known for their massive 1989 worldwide hit "Pump Up The Jam" which was No 2 in the UK charts and No 2 in the US Hot 100.

I will be compiling a new list of candidates this week from suggestions sent in by visitors last month. There are some interesting ones this time and hopefully some of them will receive a few more votes. Check the blog next week to see the new list.

Marc Tielemans