Liliane Saint-Pierre

Liliane Saint-Pierre (born Liliane Louise Keuninckx, 18 December 1948) is a Belgian (Flemish) singer who sings mainly in Dutch. Liliane Saint-Pierre was born in Molenstede, Flemish Brabant, as Liliane Keuninckx. She started her career in the 1960s when she was 13 years old. The biggest hit of her early success period was "We gotta stop" sung in Dutch. At that time she performed as Liliane. Her success didn't stay unnoticed. She became acquainted with Claude François, a French singer and producer, and asked him to promote her in France. He accepted the offer, but decided Liliane was too short for a stage name. He added Saint-Pierre to give it a more French sound and together with him as producer Saint-Pierre records about twenty songs. These songs were successful in Belgium and France. Saint-Pierre occurs at the Olympia in Paris. But the collaboration ended abruptly after a disagreement between Claude François and her manager of that time (and father-in-law) Milo De Coster. In the early 1970s, Saint-Pierre took part in the Bible musical Glory Halleluja 2000 by Group Miloscope. Several songs of the musical were released as singles. There was a huge tour set up in churches around Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and France. After trundling along at the end of the 1970s, Saint-Pierre's career was stuck in a musical deadlock. Said Saint-Pierre: "It was almost irreversible, until the Belgian entertainer Bobbejaan Schoepen called me for a series of performances in his park. Suddenly I had a year of work. This decision was taken soon; the mentality of the army was not consistent with my worldview." Saint-Pierre represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1987, where she sang "Soldiers of Love" in Dutch (a song with a strong pacifistic tone). She finished in 11th place with 56 points. Saint-Pierre had already made two previous attempts to reach the Eurovision final. In 1978 she performed the song "Mélodie" in Luxembourg's qualifying heat and in 1981 sang "Brussel" in the Belgian national contest. Following "Soldiers of Love", Saint-Pierre went on to record quite a few socially-engaged songs throughout her career. After a few more quiet years, she made a successful comeback in 1996 with a new fresh dance sound. Her biggest hit of that period was "Ik wil alles met je doen", a dance remake of Dusty Springfield's hit "In Private". With her duet with the popular Flemish boyband Get Ready! entitled "Geef me tijd", she was discovered by a whole new and younger audience. This resulted in Saint-Pierre being one of the judges in the first season of the Belgian version of the talent show X-Factor. Today Saint-Pierre still frequently records new material and she is still one of the most respected voices and live performers of Belgium.