Charlotte Foret aka Charles is one of the face of the new pop-rock Belgian scene. Discovered by the Belgian people in 2019 when she won the season 8 of The Voice Belgium (the French version), Charles has since then played at almost all the best Belgian festivals and is now conquered all the famous Belgian venues!
We discovered her only a few months ago when she played a last-minute show at Rock Werchter, which was one of the best live discoveries next to The Kid Leroy and in the top 10 shows of the whole festival at Werchter! Her deep voice and energy conquered us from the first notes and we were looking forward to hear her again. This Fall, she’s playing all over the country with shows in Kotrijk, Liege, at Trix tonight before a huge show at the Ancienne Belgique on 20 October.
This evening at Trix is very eclectic: the 3 rooms are busy! Saxon and Diamond Head for the metalheads in the main room, Glasshalder for a jazz evening at the café and so Charles for a strong pop-rock evening upstears at the Club! And what surprised us when we arrived is that the club is not in its full capacity. It’s gonna be more intimate than we expected!
To open this show, Charles invited young Belgian singer Berre. After 2 songs, we thought: is Lewis Capaldi Belgian and not Scottish? He gave us what we needed to have a doubt as he played a Lewis Capaldi‘s cover with his hit Before You Go. A beautiful version helped by the hundred of peoples present in the venue. His voice is less low than the Scottish singer but still really deep. And it’s not the only cover he’ll play tonight: we’ll also have a beautiful interpretation of Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish. A beautiful 30 minutes set for this young singer helped by a pianist and a violinist for what was one of his very first live shows. Once again: Belgium has a lot of young but very talented artists so keep an eye on them!
After a 30 minutes break, it’s time to welcome the queen of the evening on stage: Charles. Sadly, not a lot of people in the room: about 150 fans. Even after winning a huge TV program like The Voice in a part of the country, you still have a very small success in the other part?! Even in 2022 with all the social networks?! If she was really inside Wallonia culture (what could it mean for real?), we could understand it. But she has a great international touch that every Belgian artists could have. Anyway. That’s a long cultural/political debate and we are here to speak music before everything else.
Fan from Billie Eilish, Muse, Lady Gaga, Radiohead or even Nirvana, Charles has definitely a strong rock roots. We can feel it in her music, in her live performance, in her look with her red hears and full black clothes. She’s there to rock, so we are!
She released her brand new album “Until We Meet Again” in May 2022 including many powerful singles like Systematic, Until We Meet Again or Never Fair. We expected of course to hear many new songs tonight and this is what we got: 10 of the 11 songs from the new album are on the setlist, except Weakness (which is a song featuring Alioth on the studio version). Without forgetting the beautiful songs from her first EP: Wasted Time and Without You especially. Here again, only 1 song from the tracklist is removed (The Fall). It gave her some place to include a cover… New Born from Muse, the song that made us win The Voice in 2019 on RTBF?! No. A song from her favorite band: Particles from Nothing But Thieves. Which is gonna be the less good moment of a very good show: she didn’t feel well when she sang it so we weren’t really in the mood. But she includes also another surprise in the set-list: a new song called Dear God! Already a new album on the way?! Who knows. But what we know is that this new song is really good, really catchy and really radio-friendly with a chorus we all easely sing along.
The highlights of her show are for sure the energetic Systematic, the deep and intense Without You and the rock’n’roll Motives. But the downside of this show is the crowd: only a couple of people and not as participative as they could be. Sadly, the opening song Until We Meet Again felt a bit flat when it was so well thought out to start with this one.
Set-list: Until We Meet Again, Far Gone, As Good As Them, Anymore, Motives, He Knows, Didn’t Get To Say Goodbye, You Still Think You’re Right, Coward, Without You, Dear God, Miss You When You’reThere, Wasted Time, Particles, Riddle, Systematic, Be My Guest, Never Fair.
Tonight, she confirmed all the good we thought about her. She’s young and so talented that she’s on the way for a big international success for sure. Her deep, powerful but soft voice with her rock vibes will open her the doors of many places. Starting with the legendary Ancienne Belgique on October 20th!