Belgium has produced a number of famous music stars such as Maurane, Philippe Lafontaine and, of course, the legendary Jacques Brel. These artists have all come from Belgium's French-speaking community, Wallonia. More recently, the country's Dutch-speaking region, Flanders, has also proved a hotbed of musical talent, spawning a number of highly successful groups such as Clouseau and Vaya Con Dios. But now a new breed of artist has emerged on the Belgian music scene in the form of Axelle Red, a young singer who has managed to straddle the country's linguistic and cultural divide, singing in both French and Dutch. Axelle Red's smooth soul style has not only made her a huge hit in her homeland, it has also made her one of Belgium's best-selling musical exports of all time.




Fabienne Demal, better known to European music fans as Axelle Red, was born in the north of Belgium, in the Flemish town of Hasselt, on February 15 1968. She was thus brought up in an environment where everyone spoke Dutch. But Axelle's parents were both originally from Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, and at home they would speak to their daughter in French as

well as Dutch. So Axelle grew up speaking both languages fluently. (This talent would serve the singer well in later life, for she was able to record her songs in Dutch as well as French and build up a strong following of fans across the whole of Belgium). Axelle's parents would also encourage their daughter's passion for music, introducing her to the sound of legendary American soul stars such as Aretha Franklin - a singer whom Axelle Red still cites as one of her greatest musical influences.

Axelle's passion for music intensified during her teenage years and, besides her love of soul music, she also became a committed Abba fan, learning all the Swedish supergroup's hits by heart. The young teenager also devoted a great deal of time and energy to dance lessons.

Axelle soon proved to have a powerful singing voice and, at the tender age of 15, she was spotted by a talent scout from a Belgian record company. Axelle was immediately invited into the studio to record her first single - and, as they say in the music world, the rest is history. The single "Little Girls" went rocketing to the top of the Belgian Top 50 in 1983, catapulting the young Axelle Red to overnight stardom.

Encouraged by this early success, Axelle began spending more time in the studio and she eventually went on to record a highly accomplished demo tape. In 1985 Axelle's tape would fall into the hands of the English guitarist Mick Ronson (famous for his work with rock legend David Bowie). Ronson was greatly impressed by Axelle's voice and put forward the idea of producing an album with the young Belgian singer. Unfortunately, Ronson's record label, Redbus, rejected the idea of releasing an album by a relative unknown and the project bit the dust. But Axelle gained a great deal of confidence from this experience.

After this brief interlude, Axelle returned to her studies with renewed enthusiasm, dividing her time between a law degree and a drama course at a performing arts school. But in 1988 Axelle would abandon both her law studies and her drama course to launch a full-time singing career, after signing a major recording deal with BMG.

Axelle called upon her brothers, Seff, Daniel and Richard, to help her with her first single and the family songwriting team would come up with Axelle's legendary hit "Kennedy

e Red to overnight stardom.

Encouraged by this early success, Axelle began spending more time in the studio and she eventually went on to record a highly accomplished demo tape. In 1985 Axelle's tape would fall into the hands of the English guitarist Mick Ronson (famous for his work with rock legend David Bowie). Ronson was greatly impressed by Axelle's voice and put forward the idea of producing an album with the young Belgian singer. Unfortunately, Ronson's record label, Redbus, rejected the idea of releasing an album by a relative unknown and the project bit the dust. But Axelle gained a great deal of confidence from this experience.

After this brief interlude, Axelle returned to her studies with renewed enthusiasm, dividing her time between a law degree and a drama course at a performing arts school. But in 1988 Axelle would abandon both her law studies and her drama course to launch a full-time singing career, after signing a major recording deal with BMG.

Axelle called upon her brothers, Seff, Daniel and Richard, to help her with her first single and the family songwriting team would come up with Axelle's legendary hit "Kennedy Boulevard". This single proved a huge hit in Belgium, earning Axelle Red her first gold disc in 1988. The following year the young singer was back at the top of the charts with another best-selling single entitled "Aretha et moi".

In 1992 Axelle Red left BMG after signing a new deal with the Belgian branch of Virgin. Instead of returning to the recording studio immediately, however, Axelle would spend the next few months concentrating on writing new material for her first album.

The singer was finally ready to go into the studio the following year and set to work on her debut album, "Sans plus attendre". Released in September of that year, Axelle Red's first album would not only prove a huge smash in Belgium, it would also rocket the young Belgian singer to fame in other European countries. Indeed, the catchy soul and r'n'b fusion of "Sensualité", the first single release from the album, would go on to become an enormous hit in France.