Biography

Ellie Blanche Delvaux born 10 June 1999), better known as simply Blanche is a Belgian singer and songwriter. She represented Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Ukraine with the song "City Lights", finishing in fourth place. Her stage name, "Blanche", is her third name.

Ellie Delvaux was born in Belgium, speaks French, English and Hebrew. As a child she liked to sing to herself. She later attended some musical theatre classes and took part in school performances. When she turned 16, she auditioned for The Voice. After Eurovision, she hoped to complete secondary school in Belgium.

On 25 May 2018, Blanche released the single "Wrong Turn". A music video was released to Blanche's official YouTube channel on 19 June 2018. It was directed by Nur Casadevall. The song "Soon" was released on 20 July 2018, along with a lyric video. On 16 November 2018, Blanche released the single "Moment", which is about "living in the present, trying to forget about any doubts and fears you have…we have to let ourselves live. If we don’t learn to enjoy the present moment, then we might regret it when it’s over...”.

She also said that the song is "for all the people who sometimes struggle to connect with the present moment, who feel like they’re looking at their lives from the outside". A music video was released on the same day and was directed by Eve Mahoney. The song spent 14 weeks in the top 50 in Wallonia, peaking at number 22, making it Blanche's highest-peaking single since "City Lights".

A piano version of "Moment" was released on 14 December 2018. Blanche appeared three times on Wiwibloggs' list of the best songs of 2018 by artists who have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest: with "Moment" at number 7, "Soon" at number 21 and "Wrong Turn" at number 43.

On 30 January 2020, Blanche announced that the single "Empire" would be released on 14 February 2020. The song was released a day earlier, on 13 February 2020. "Empire" is about people who wear shields to shield themselves from all emotions and ultimately deceive themselves. A music video for the song premiered on the same day on Complex.

The video was directed by Valéry Joseph and filmed at Studio Stories in Ghent. The video's imagery was inspired by surrealist paintings, particularly those of Gertrude Abercrombie. In the video, there is limited movement, instead it relies on bold outfits, colours and lighting to express an emotional message of "fear, power, abandonment, pain, introversion, self-unveiling, trust and authenticity".

Blanche started writing the song in her studio in Brussels in November 2017, but the song continued to evolve with the involvement of new collaborators, until it was completed in March 2019. On 14 February 2020, Blanche announced that her debut album, titled Empire would be released on 24 April 2020.

The single "Fences" was premiered on Clash on 26 March 2020, before being released the following day. On 1 April 2020, Blanche announced that the release of her debut album would be delayed until 29 May 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 May 2020, Blanche released the single "1, 2, Miss You".

The song is included on the album Empire along with the previous singles "Soon", "Empire" and "Fences". Empire debuted and peaked at number 7 in Wallonia, and at number 22 in Flanders. On 26 June 2020, "Till We Collide" was released as the album's fourth single. On 28 August 2020, "Summer Nights" was released as the fifth single from Empire