In the summer of 2005, in the Tsitsikama forest on the East coast of South Africa, I met my girlfriend. She was from Belgium. We quickly realised our shared love of music and the first song she introduced me to was ‘Mia’ from Gorky. Even though I didn’t understand the Lyrics, I instantly felt drawn to the song and I knew directly that this was one of those songs without any timespan. It’s the same feeling you get when you listen to a song like ‘No woman no cry’.
At that time I was already a full time touring musician in South Africa and even though at that point I had no connection with Belgium the song touched me so much that i decided to add it to my live repertoire. I made a quick translation into Afrikaans and I‘ve been singing it live ever since. In 2012 while recording my debut album with Universal Music South Africa, We added ‘Mia’ to the album as well. I never had any idea how much the song meant to the flemish community, it was just a song that liked and sang.
Fast forward to mid 2014, Me and my girlfriend relocated to Belgium. Unfortunately a few months after our arrival Luc passed but i was lucky enough to see ‘Mia’ Live once before he passed earlier that year. The ceremonies surrounding his death gave me a whole new understanding of what the song meant and also the responsibility that I would have to take concerning the song from then on. I had to approach the song with a lot more sensitivity and do my best to sing the song with sincerity and as a tribute to Luc instead of just using it as a way to attracting more people to concerts.
Exactly one year after his death on the day, I slept late into the afternoon because I was probably hungover, I was still wearing my pyjamas and busy cooking. It was around 3pm and I received a phone call from Studio Brussels. The person on the other end said that they heard I do an Afrikaans cover of Mia and asked if I would like to come play it live on air as a tribute for the 1 year anniversary of Luc’s death. I said: ‘sure anytime just send me a date’. They said: ‘at 6pm today!’.
I put a jacket over my pyjamas, still stinking of garlic, onions and alcohol, grabbed my guitar and rushed to the metro. There was no time to prepare, overthink or stress about it but it also didn’t matter because I’ve been singing the song for almost a decade. What transpired that day in the studio was my most heartfelt and honest performance of Mia so far. Raw, no Bullshit, just acoustic guitar and vocals. It also became my first viral moment in Belgium. 9 years later on the 10 year anniversary of Luc de Vos’s death we’re releasing that performance on all digital platforms and I‘m extremely honoured and proud to have played a tiny little part to bring a tribute to Luc with this beautiful song and also in doing my part to keep the dream alive.
Here's another tribute:
SNOOZECONTROL - Gent eert Luc De Vos
