Eurovision 2004 - Number 32 - Sofie Van Moll - "Kerosene"

Sofie Van Moll has a Dutch Wikipedia entry that begins like a fairytale. At the age of 13 Sofie left Leuven with only a suitcase... Luckily she found herself in drama school. In 2004, she's still at that drama school in Maastricht. She's also a presenter on Belgian TV station Ketnet and tours with a band associated with that station, the Ketnet Band. Sofie can sing.

With this young music and TV career, she became one of the faces of Eurosong 2004 with a song written by Piet Van Den Heuvel - songwriter and former rocker himself. He had three songs in the 2004 competition that achieved a variety of results. Sofie was in the second heat.

Kerosene is rock number that keeps it under control. Despite Sofie telling us that she's pouring accelerants on the fire, and that the flames are licking around her feet as she takes all manner of risks, the song itself holds back - perhaps too much. It doesn't really take off, though Sofie tries her best with wide, determined and reckless eyes at the camera. Her voice is good and suited to this type of song and I would have loved for her to be able to really let go with it. Despite this musical reticence, it's good to have a melodic rock number sung well and with interest. 2004 seems to be the year when this genre of music was coming to the forefront of the national finals.

The radio juries loved Kerosene. They put it clear out in front of Heat 2, with almost double the points of the runner up. However the more traditional jury and the televote weren't as enthusiastic. They both favoured the same two other songs and Sofie was left marooned in third place - not good enough to earn a place in the finals.

Sofie's post-Eurosong career left music behind, though she still sang with a band called The Expendables (of whom I can find no information). She focused both on her TV presenting work and increasingly as an actor, but after 2014 left her role in front of the cameras. She coached some of Belgium's aspiring Junior Eurovision candidates and trained as a drama therapist.

W817: 8eraf

In 2017 verzamelde quasi de hele cast van de legendarische Ketnet-reeks ‘W817’ voor een kleine act tijdens de throwback thursday in het Sportpladijs. Dat onze generatie deze helden nog lang niet vergeten waren en de absurde songteksten van toen nog steeds kunnen meezingen werd toen heel duidelijk, en al snel doken in de wandelgangen geruchten en dromen voor een heuse W817-film op. Begin 2020…

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Als extra activiteit ben ik donderdag 30 november naar Throwback Thursday gaan kijken in het Sportpaleis. Wat dit inhield? Drie uur lang pure nostalgie! Een groot feest ter ere van 20 jaar Ketnet. Het was de eerste show die werd aangekondigd een paar maanden geleden. De aanwezigen: Steven Van Herreweghe en Sofie Van Moll als presentatoren, alle acteurs van W817, een paar deelnemers van Junior Eurosong, een paar acteurs van Spring, en last but not least: Samson en Gert en alle nevenacteurs van uit de serie! Het werd een heerlijke avond boordevol nostalgische momenten. Zeker en vast een aanrader voor mensen die nog zouden twijfelen om naar één van de komende shows te gaan kijken!