Micheline van Hautem

SEASON IN THE SUN: Micheline Van Hautem will perform two concerts in Nelson on October 24 and 25.

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Naomi Arnold meets the Belgian songstress ahead of her Nelson gig.

Belgian chanteuse Micheline van Hautem was "a rock'n'roll girl" until she fell for Flemish singer-songwriter Jacques Brel.

"I listened to the Eurythmics and Led Zep, Janis Joplin with full drum kit and amplifiers in smoky bars. It was quite a surprise to myself that I all of a sudden had this incredible liking for this French chanteur."

Nelson audiences will be able to explore her relationship with the dead composer as well as sample some of her own creations when she performs two concerts in Nelson this weekend.

Van Hautem is on a mobile phone in a Sydney Airport restaurant, espousing her love for Brel, as a sushi train chugs past in front of her. Even thus distracted, her passion for the man she has spent years interpreting warms her voice. Her accent is melodic, her voice sincere.

"He's not just a songwriter. His songs are very well-crafted, his words are poetry."

Brel's lyrics are universal, van Hautem says; the love and humour in his writing transcends both nationality and gender. Only after a near-scientific dissection of his lyrics, using a dictionary to carefully translate each word from his French to her English and Flemish, does her organic interpretation emerge.

Van Hautem's posthumous relationship with Brel and her efforts to keep his music alive have created a close relationship with his surviving family – his wife Therese Michielsen, his children and his nephew Bruno Brel, with whom she has toured internationally.

Bruno has told her that when performing, he can feel his uncle on stage with them. Van Hautem believes an audience responds to that intimacy, though she's had a few who have demanded that she "conquer" them.

"You come in and they say `So, this is the Michelle who is going to sing Brel', and you have to say `Hey, I just want to give you a good time and hope you go home with a smile. There's no competition here."'

More often, she has found the audience welcome her with open arms, "ready to have a laugh and a tear".

"It's very nice to feel their interest, for the performer to sink into those arms. I find that an audience can give you a lot of energy."

However, her performances are not just about her. Van Hautem says she flies "on the wings of the fabulous accompanists I work with". In the past it has been writing with Tim Finn via Skype; in this case it is guitarist Erwin van Lighten, with whom she wrote her album Chocolat. Their on-stage relationship has been called electric, inspired and passionate, leaving reviewers the world over in tears. It is van Hautem's aim to draw such a response from the audience, conveying what is going on in her emotional and physical life and sharing it with them.

It's a bit like making love, she says with a laugh: "The communication, dynamics and feeding off each other's space."

Music is the "universal language" that connects her and the audience, her and her accompanists – and ultimately, herself and Jacques Brel, the dead master of song.

• Belgian singer Micheline van Hautem performs with Erwin van Lighten on guitar at two concerts: Concert Brel, at Woollaston Estates, Saturday, October 24, at 7pm; and Concert Chocolat at Founders' Mainstage, Sunday, October 25, at 7pm.Tickets for the Woollaston Estates show are $60 and for the Founders show $43, and are available from Everyman.

- © Fairfax NZ News