The Belgian entrants in 2003, the group Urban Trad, had their final concert last night. The band announced their farewell tour a while ago. That tour ended tonight, with a concert in Brussels.

Urban Trad rose to European fame in 2003, when they were chosen as the Belgian representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest. With their modern folk song Sanomi, completely in an imaginary language, they almost took the victory in Riga. With only one country to vote (Slovenia), Belgium was leading with 162 points, followed by Turkey's Sertab Erener and her Everyway That I Can. Slovenia then gave only three points to Belgium and ten to Turkey. Belgium missed out on the victory by only two points.
Until today, this still is the second best Belgian result ever. Only Sandra Kim did better in 1986 by winning the contest.

When they entered Eurovision, Urban Trad already existed for three years. In 2000, Yves Barbieux founded the group. Until 2004, their music was heavily influenced by Celtic sounds. After 2004, also Scandinavian music influenced the group.
In total, they released four albums: One-O-Four (2001), Kerua (2003, contains their Eurovision entry Sanomi), Elem (2004) and Erbalunga (2007).

• By Nick van Lith on Feb 5, 2012Source: escXtra.com, keysandchords.com, Eurosong.be