This is a song I have very strong feelings for. Simple and sincere, heart-warming and tender, this is one of the best entries Flanders ever sent to the ESC.
Ann Christy had already scored a big hit after coming third in the 1971 Belgian final with "Dag vreemde man" and would now create a true evergreen on home ground. Highly appreciated already then, it was a hit again in a cover version some twenty years later (this time sung by the group Mama's Jasje).
Since the rules stipulated free choice of language, and BRT both wanted to show their language to the world as well as securing a respectable score, it was decided that "Gelukkig zijn" would be performed in a bilingual version. The singer was not too keen on this idea, but a contract is a contract, and BRT had the last word.
Despite the juggling with languages, the song didn't score more than a modest seventeen points and had to content itself with a fifteenth place among nineteen contestans. Clearly a disappointment, but the song lived on despite its eurovision failure.
I have heard people saying that the lyrics deal with the subject of lesbian love, but then these people know something that isn't stated clearly in the song. It could be, but it could just as well be about any couple, regardless of sexual orientation.
The vocal delivery of Ann Christy is pure beauty: her voice is tender, intense and powerful at the right moments, showing what a remarkable performer she was.
Ann Christy died in 1984, at the tender age of 38.
Ann Christy - Gelukkig zijn / Could It Be Happiness (Belgium 1975)
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