Singer. Producer. Songwriter. DJ … Sweetheart! The latest Eurosong artist to drop by Building Bridges was the fabulous Manou Maerten, better known to her fans as Le Manou!

Le Manou is one of just eight artists chosen to compete at Eurosong 2025 — Belgium’s national selection show to determine who will represent that country at Eurovision in Basel in May.

Due to VRT’s rules surrounding Eurosong, Le Manou was unable to talk about the song, but she did divulge how it was created:

“[… at] a Eurovision writing camp in July. It was like five days and it was actually here in our studio and there were like a few other candidates for Eurosong in the camp and the fact that we were with a lot of Eurovision fans and professionals … I think it was like in a way the first time in a writing camp that I did that where there were no boundaries and you could do whatever you wanted. So I think every day I made one song and every day it was like a total different kind of song […] I tried to make a ballad because that’s something my family always said, ‘Oh, you have such a beautiful voice try to make a beautiful ballad,’ and then we tried and I was like, ‘F*** it! I need to to mash it up and to make it a remix and up-tempo’!”

— Manou Maerten

During the interview, Jan and Dave were able to see Le Manou’s love of Eurovision from time to time, and what kind of mark she hopes to leave on the Eurovision community:

“The fact that I want to say you can do whatever you want as a girl—you can be the songwriter, you can be the producer, you can be the DJ, you can be whatever you want. And I’m happy to show that and to try to put more female writers into the Eurovision… I’m happy to be a woman in this industry and to show that you can do whatever you want as a woman.”

— Manou Maerten

As the Belgian broadcaster VRT is keeping things very tight-lipped this year, we’ll have to wait for Eurosong live on Saturday, 1^st February to see what kind of party Le Manou has planned for the big stage in Brussels!

Until then, be sure and check out the full interview with Le Manou (above) to find out what the Eurosong artists are talking about in their Whatsapp group, hear a snippet of her covering J’aime la vie, and some of her favourite Eurovision memories growing up. The episode is available now wherever you get your favourite Eurovision podcasts!

We wish Le Manou the best of luck at Eurosong in February! Let us know in the comments and on our social media profiles @buildingbridgespod what you thought of the interview and if you think we’ll see her in Basel in May!