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55 albums · 1958–2025

Music of Belgium, from Jacques Brel and Adamo to TC Matic, Front 242, dEUS, Soulwax, Stromae, Angèle, Damso and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Belgium's popular music is sung in French, Dutch and English, often within a few miles of each other in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent and Ostend. In the fifties and sixties Annie Cordy brought music-hall high spirits from Brussels to Paris, Jacques Brel wrote and sang theatrical chansons from Les Bourgeois to Ces gens-là that reshaped French song, and Salvatore Adamo carried Tombe la neige from Hainaut across the world. In Flanders, Will Tura stood at the centre of the Dutch-language song alongside the kleinkunst, folk and rock of Johan Verminnen, Kris De Bruyne, Raymond van het Groenewoud and Antwerp's Wannes Van de Velde. At the end of the seventies Plastic Bertrand's Ça plane pour moi and Telex's deadpan synthesizer pop opened the way for TC Matic's angular European rock in Ostend and Arno's solo records, while Wim Mertens wrote minimalist chamber music and The Neon Judgement, Front 242 and Technotronic made Belgian clubs a laboratory for electronic body music, New Beat and Eurodance.

Alongside Vaya Con Dios, Maurane, Clouseau and Axelle Red in the late eighties and nineties, a wave of Dutch-language rock bands—Gorki, De Mens and Noordkaap—shared festival stages with English-singing bands from Antwerp, Ghent and Limburg: dEUS with Worst Case Scenario, Zita Swoon, K's Choice, Hooverphonic's trip hop, the Dewaele brothers' Soulwax and Das Pop. The 2000s and 2010s added Flip Kowlier's West Flemish hip hop, Admiral Freebee, Ozark Henry, Gabriel Ríos, Milow, Absynthe Minded, Balthazar, Netsky's drum and bass, Triggerfinger, Selah Sue and Belgian-born Gotye. Stromae brought the cadence of Brel onto the dance floor with Racine carrée, followed by Bazart in Dutch, Tamino, the Brussels and Flemish hip hop and pop of Damso, Hamza, Angèle, Roméo Elvis, Brihang, Zwangere Guy and Pommelien Thijs, the heavy post-metal and post-hardcore of Kortrijk's Amenra and Leuven's Brutus, and the global techno of Amelie Lens and Charlotte de Witte.

The list gathers 55 records from 1958 to 2025, one or two by each artist; the jazz tradition from Toots Thielemans and Philip Catherine to today, the early music revival led by the Kuijken brothers, Philippe Herreweghe and René Jacobs, and the carillons and brass bands of the towns would each need a list of their own. About 45 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Pop 17%Rock 17%Electronic 9%Other 57%
  • Pop 17%
  • Rock 17%
  • Electronic 9%
  • Other 57%

The genres named most: belgian, chanson, pop, indie rock, electronic, alternative rock.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Belgium 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.