Édouard, baron Merckx (/ˈmɛʁks/), known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian cyclist born on 17 June 1945.

A professional from 1965 to 1978, Eddy Merckx is often regarded as the greatest cyclist in history, such was his success at the highest level. He won a record 625 races (525 road victories, 98 track wins and two cyclo-cross titles) during his career. Nicknamed "The Cannibal" or "The Ogre of Tervueren" for his insatiability, Eddy Merckx has numerous other records in cycling, including eleven Grand Tours won (five Tours de France, five Tours of Italy and one Tour of Spain) and three world road championships, as well as thirty-one classics including nineteen 'Monuments' (seven Milan-San Remo, two Tours of Flanders, three Paris-Roubaix, five Liège-Bastogne-Liège and two Tours of Lombardy). He also finished on the final podium of a grand tour twelve times. Only Jacques Anquetil did better, with thirteen podium finishes.

Eddy Merckx also broke the hour record. He was voted "Belgian athlete of the 20th century", as well as best cyclist of the 20th century by the International Cycling Union.

René Magritte,

né le 21 novembre 1898 à Lessines (Belgique) et mort le 15 août 1967 à Schaerbeek, est un peintre surréaliste belge.

Associated with surrealism, René Magritte (1898-1967) is the master of enigmas. Known for his paintings that function like rebus or metaphors, he highlights, with humour and poetry, our difficulty in making the reality of the world coincide with our mental images - in short, what makes up the human mind. Magritte developed a veritable pictorial alphabet using recurring motifs: the apple, the bird, the man in the bowler hat, fragmented bodies, etc. His images are often hidden behind or within other images, combining two possible levels of reading, the visible and the invisible.

Adolphe Sax- inventor of the saxophone

Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax - 6 November 1814 – 7 February 1894 -was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the flute and clarinet.

His father and mother were instrument designers themselves, who made several changes to the design of the French horn. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age, entering two of his flutes and a clarinet into a competition at the age of 15. He subsequently studied performance on those two instruments as well as voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.

Jacques Brel

Jacques Romain Georges Brel (8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed theatrical songs. He generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, but later throughout the world. He is considered a master of the modern chanson.

Although he recorded most of his songs in French and occasionally in Dutch, he became an influence on English-speaking songwriters and performers, such as Scott Walker, David Bowie, Alex Harvey, Marc Almond, Neil Hannon, and Rod McKuen. English translations of his songs were recorded by many performers, including Bowie, Walker, Ray Charles, Judy Collins, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, James Dean Bradfield, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams.

Brel was a successful actor, appearing in 10 films. He directed two films, one of which, Le Far West, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973.[ Having sold over 25 million records worldwide, Brel is the third-best-selling Belgian recording artist of all time. Brel married Thérèse "Miche" Michielsen in 1950, and the couple had three children. He also had a romantic relationship with actress and dancer Maddly Bamy from 1972 until his death in 1978.

Famous songs: Ne me quittes pas, Le plat pays, Les bourgeois, La valse à mille temps, Mathilde, Marieke, Quand on n’a que l’amour, ... see more on this link on youtube.

Sœur (Sister) Emmanuelle,

(16 November 1908 – 20 October 2008) was a Religious Sister of both Belgian and French origins, noted for her involvement in working for the plight of the poor in Turkey and Egypt.

In the 1930s, Sister Emmanuelle started teaching at the Notre-Dame de Sion High School in Istanbul, where she lived until the 1960s, with teaching assignments by her congregation of several years in Tunis and Alexandria in between.

In 1971, Sister Emmanuelle witnessed the impoverished conditions of the trash collectors in Cairo, Egypt, and decided to live among them. She remained there until 1993, when she returned to France.

In addition to her charity work, she was known for her unorthodox religious views, including her approval of the use of contraception and of the idea of allowing priests to marry. She was voted one of the most popular people in both France and Belgium, and was compared to Mother Teresa, although she herself regarded the comparison as "ridiculous".

She died in her sleep from natural causes at the age of 99, less than four weeks from celebrating her 100th birthday.

French Singer Calogero dedicated a song to her named "Yalla", which means "move on, move forward" in Arabic, something she was famous for saying. The song was sung to her for her 98th birthday.

In 2018, for the 10th anniversary of her death, the city of Paris decided to name a street after her.

Pater Damiaan,

Père Damien, Father Damien or Saint Damien of Molokai (3 January 1840 – 15 April 1889) born Jozef De Veuster, was a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium and member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a missionary religious institute. He was recognized for his ministry, which he led from 1873 until his death in 1889, in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi to people with leprosy (Hansen's disease), who lived in government-mandated medical quarantine in a settlement on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokaʻi.

During this time, he taught the Catholic faith to the people of Hawaii. Father Damian also cared for the patients and established leaders within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches. He dressed residents' ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves, shared pipes, and ate poi with them, providing both medical and emotional support.

After eleven years of caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony, Father Damian contracted leprosy. He continued with his work despite the infection but finally succumbed to the disease on 15 April 1889. Father Damian also had tuberculosis which worsened his condition, but some believe that the reason he volunteered in the first place was due to his illness of tuberculosis.[

Father Damian has been described as a "martyr of charity". Damien De Veuster is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. In the Anglican Communion and other Christian denominations, Damian is considered the spiritual patron for leprosy and outcasts. Father Damian Day, 15 April, the day of his death, is also a minor statewide holiday in Hawaii. Father Damian is the patron saint of the Diocese of Honolulu and of Hawaii.

Father Damian was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 October 2009. Libert H. Boeynaems, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, calls him "the Apostle of the Lepers." Damian De Veuster's feast day is 10 May.

Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 25 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone.

At the age of 17, he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplomas and first prizes in voice and opera performance. He made his opera début as the music teacher Don Basilio in Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Paris Opera in 1961, and remained in the company until 1965, when he sang his first major role, Escamillo from Bizet's Carmen. He then sang for two seasons at Geneva, La Scala, Covent Garden, and in Paris.

Van Dam has performed at L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Salzburg Festival, and festivals in Aix-en-Provence and Orange, France.

Van Dam has become the Master in Residence of the singing section at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in his home country, Belgium, since 2011.

Here is a link to an abstract of the movie “Le maître de musique”. Le Maître de Musique is a Belgian film directed by Gérard Corbiau and released in 1988.The first sequences of the movie - in which Joachim Dallayrac, played by José van Dam, gives his last recital - were filmed in the theatre of Chimay castle. The scenes of the arrival of the train and the market were filmed at Olloy-sur-Viroin station. Several of the film's interior and exterior scenes were shot at the Château de La Hulpe. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989. José Van Dam in an interview says that after this film he became better known outside the opera public. Some spectators told him that he had given them a taste for opera music or the impetus to start signing.

Hergé

Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials RG, was a Belgian comic strip artist. He is best known for creating The Adventures of Tintin, the series of comic albums which are considered one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. He was also responsible for two other well-known series, Quick & Flupke (1930–1940) and The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko (1936–1957).

Victor Pierre Horta

Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement.

The curving stylized vegetal forms that Horta used in turn influenced many others, including the French architect Hector Guimard, who used it in the first Art Nouveau apartment building he designed in Paris and in the entrances he designed for the Paris Metro. He is also considered a precursor of modern architecture for his open floor plans and his innovative use of iron, steel and glass.

Horta's later work moved away from Art Nouveau, and became more geometric and formal, with classical touches, such as columns. He made a highly original use of steel frames and skylights to bring light into the structures, open floor plans, and finely-designed decorative details.

His later major works included the Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis (1895–1899), Brussels' Centre for Fine Arts (1923–1929) and Brussels Central Station (1913–1952). In 1932, King Albert I conferred on Horta the title of Baron for his services to the field of architecture.

After Art Nouveau lost favor, many of Horta's buildings were abandoned, or even destroyed, though his work has since been rehabilitated. Four of the buildings he designed in Brussels were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000: the Hôtel Tassel, the Hôtel Solvay, the Hôtel van Eetvelde and the Horta House (currently the Horta Museum).

More on: https://www.discoveringbelgium.com/victor-horta/

Dirk Dries David Damiaan, First belgian in space.

Viscount Frimout (born 21 March 1941 in Poperinge, Belgium) is an astrophysicist for the European Space Agency. He flew aboard NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-45 as a payload specialist] making him the first Belgian in space.

Frimout flew as a payload specialist on STS-45 Atlantis (24 March to 2 April 1992). STS-45 was launched from and returned to land at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. It was the first Spacelab mission dedicated to NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. During the nine-day flight, the crew aboard Atlantis operated the twelve experiments that constituted the ATLAS-1 (Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science) cargo. ATLAS-1 obtained a vast array of detailed measurements of atmospheric chemical and physical properties, which contributed significantly to improving our understanding of our climate and atmosphere. In addition, this was the first time an artificial beam of electrons was used to stimulate a man-made auroral discharge. At mission conclusion, Frimout had traveled 3.2 million miles in 143 Earth orbits and logged over 214 hours in space.

His flight made him instantaneously very famous in Belgium and triggered what was called Frimout-mania.[5] Prince Philippe of Belgium talked with him when he was in space and a ticker tape parade was organized when he came back to Belgium.

Claude Barzotti

23 July 1953 – 24 June 2023) was a Belgian singer of Italian origin who was prominent during the 1980s. Barzotti recorded several songs which each sold hundreds of thousands of copies. He first achieved success in 1981 with his song Le Rital.

Rital is a derogatory French slang term used to refer to people of Italian descent. The song deals with Barzotti's experiences as a young child and how "he would have preferred to be named Dupont (a common French surname) but the song also deals with his pride concerning the term, exemplified in lines such as Je suis rital et je le reste, (I'm Italian and will so remain). Barzotti's career continued throughout the 1980s, but his last major successful song was Aime-moi (Love Me) in 1990. Although Barzotti took advantage of the wave of nostalgia which gripped France at the turn of the 21st century, he was unable to capture the musical prominence he had once held. Because of his distinctive voice and great successes in the French music industry, he is considered one of the most prominent French pop musicians of the 1980s. Barzotti's music was also popular in Québec, with songs such as Je ne t'écrirai plus (I Won't Write You Anymore), Prends bien soin d'elle (Take Good Care of Her), C'est moi qui pars (It's Me Who's Leaving), and J'ai les bleus (I Have the Blues).

Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay

16 April 1838 – 26 May 1922) was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist.

Born in Rebecq, he was prevented by his acute pleurisy from going to university. He worked in his uncle's chemical factory from the age of 21.

In 1861, he, along with his brother Alfred Solvay, developed the ammonia-soda process (also known as the Solvay process) for the manufacturing of soda ash (anhydrous sodium carbonate) from brine (as a source of sodium chloride) and limestone (as a source of calcium carbonate).

The exploitation of his patents brought Solvay considerable wealth, which he used for philanthropic purposes, including the establishment in 1894 of the "Institut des Sciences Sociales" (ISS) or Institute for Sociology at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel), as well as International Institutes for Physics and Chemistry. In 1903, he founded the Solvay Business School which is also part of the Free University of Brussels.

Amélie Nothomb

Baroness Fabienne Claire Nothomb born 13 August 1967[1]), better known by her pen name Amélie Nothomb is a Belgian Francophone novelist. Part of her childhood was spent in Asia.

A prolific author, since the publication of her first novel Hygiene and the Assassin in 1992, at the age of twenty-six, she has published a book a year. Her novels are among the top literary sales and have been translated into several languages.

She is a Commander of the Order of the Crown and has had the title of Baroness bestowed upon her by King Philippe of Belgium. Her satirical novel about corporate life in Japan Fear and Trembling won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française in 1999, and in 2015 she was elected to the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature in Belgium.

Benoît Poelvoorde

born 22 September 1964) is a Belgian actor and comedian.

In 1992, Poelvoorde, Belvaux and Bonzel wrote, produced and directed together their first long feature C'est arrivé près de chez vous (Man Bites Dog internationally) originally a low-budget school graduation project (1992) and a kind of cynical "noir" movie, inspired from the famous Belgian series "Strip-Tease" which went on to become a critically acclaimed cult movie. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the Belgian Film Critics Association (UCC).

Poelvoorde subsequently starred in two series on the French pay-channel Canal+ and several movies such as Les Randonneurs, Le Boulet and Podium, which made him famous in France and Belgium. In 2001, he starred in Le Vélo de Ghislain Lambert, a movie about one of his passions, bicycling. In 2002, he received the Jean Gabin Prize, which recognized the most hopeful young talents. Poelvoorde became a member of the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2004 by request of Quentin Tarantino, a big fan of Man Bites Dog who had presided over the Jury that year.

In 2008, his performance in the movie Astérix aux Jeux olympiques won him critical acclaim by both film critics and the public at large. His recurrent character as a pretentious person and a sore loser has drawn comparisons between him and the beloved French comedian Louis de Funès. Poelvoorde also played serious roles. He has starred in 2009 as Etienne Balsan in Coco avant Chanel by Anne Fontain, with Audrey Tautou; as Jean-René in 2010 with Isabelle Carré in a comedy by Jean-Pierre Améris Émotifs anonymes about two extremely shy persons who fall in love, and also as August Maquet in L'autre Dumas by Safy Nebbou, alongside Gérard Depardieu and Dominique Blanc, a movie about the creative ghostwriter, Maquet, who played a crucial role in the production of French writer Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers. For his work in A Place on Earth (2013), Poelvoorde received a Magritte Award for Best Actor.

Jacky Ickx

Jacques Bernard Edmon Martin Henry "Jacky" Ickx (born 1 January 1945) is a Belgian former racing driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times (second-highest of all time) and achieved eight wins and 25 podium finishes in Formula One. He greatly contributed to several World Championships for Makes and World Sports Car championships: Ford (1968), Ferrari (1972), Porsche (1976–1977) and (1982–1985) by his 37 major World Sports Car wins. He also won the Can-Am Championship in 1979 and the 1983 Paris–Dakar Rally.

Ickx twice finished as championship runner-up in Formula One, in the consecutive years of 1969 and 1970. He won the majority of his races for Scuderia Ferrari, for which he was the team's leading driver for several seasons in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Sir Peter Paul Rubens

(28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium).[

He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens's highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of classical and Christian history. His unique and immensely popular Baroque style emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, which followed the immediate, dramatic artistic style promoted in the Counter-Reformation. Rubens was a painter producing altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. He was also a prolific designer of cartoons for the Flemish tapestry workshops and of frontispieces for the publishers in Antwerp.

In addition to running a large workshop in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist. The catalogue of his works by Michael Jaffé lists 1,403 pieces, excluding numerous copies made in his workshop.

His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerp by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria in 1635. He wrote a book with illustrations of the palaces in Genoa, which was published in 1622 as Palazzi di Genova. The book was influential in spreading the Genoese palace style in Northern Europe. Rubens was an avid art collector and had one of the largest collections of art and books in Antwerp. He was also an art dealer and is known to have sold an important number of art objects to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.

He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.

Stromae

Paul van Haver born 12 March 1985), better known by his stage name Stromae is a Belgian singer, rapper, songwriter and producer. He is mostly known for his music blending hip hop and electronic music. Stromae came to wide public attention in 2009 with his song "Alors on danse" (from the album Cheese), which became a number one in several European countries. In 2013, his second album Racine carrée was a commercial success, selling two million copies in France. The main singles from the album include "Papaoutai" and "Formidable". Stromae also has a series of “leçons” that show how he makes his songs.

Jean Claude Van Damme

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme is a Belgian martial artist, actor, filmmaker, fight choreographer, and conservationist. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the age of ten his father enrolled him in martial arts classes, which led Van Damme to compete in several karate and kickboxing competitions. With the desire of becoming an actor, he moved to the United States in 1982, where he did odd jobs and worked on several films, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts film Bloodsport (1988).

Van Damme became a popular action film star and followed up with box-office successes such as Cyborg (1989), Kickboxer (1989), Lionheart (1990), Death Warrant (1990), Double Impact (1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Nowhere to Run (1993), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), Street Fighter (1994), Sudden Death (1995), The Quest (1996), Maximum Risk (1996), etc. After a decline, Van Damme returned to prominence with the critically acclaimed crime drama JCVD (2008). His first widely released action film since 1999 was The Expendables 2 (2012), in which he starred as the villain, opposite Sylvester Stallone. From thereon Van Damme continued starring in action films and doing extensive voice work.

Van Damme's films have grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making him one of the most successful action stars of all time.[ Outside acting, Van Damme has publicly supported various conservationist causes. In 2017, he became an international ambassador for GAIA (Global Action in the Interest of Animals), and in 2022, was appointed as DRC Ambassador On Environment.

Toots Thielemans

Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans (29 April 1922 – 22 August 2016), known professionally as Toots Thielemans was a Belgian jazz musician. He was mostly known for playing the chromatic harmonica, as well as his guitar and whistling skills, and composing. According to jazz historian Ted Gioia, his most important contribution was in "championing the humble harmonica", which Thielemans made into a "legitimate voice in jazz". He eventually became the "preeminent" jazz harmonica player.

His first professional performances were with Benny Goodman's band when they toured Europe in 1949 and 1950. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1951, becoming a citizen in 1957. From 1953 to 1959 he played with George Shearing, and then led his own groups on tours in the U.S. and Europe. In 1961 he recorded and performed live one of his own compositions, "Bluesette", which featured him playing guitar and whistling. In the 1970s and 1980s, he continued touring and recording, appearing with musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Bill Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Werner, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Mina Mazzini, Elis Regina, Quincy Jones, George Shearing, Natalie Cole, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, and Paquito D'Rivera.

Thielemans recorded the soundtracks for The Pawnbroker (1964), Midnight Cowboy (1969), The Getaway (1972), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Sugarland Express (1974) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). His harmonica theme song for the popular Sesame Street TV show was heard for 40 years. He often performed and recorded with Quincy Jones, who once called him "one of the greatest musicians of our time." In 2009 he was designated a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor for a jazz musician in the United States.

David and Stephen Dewaele (Soulwax)

Soulwax are a Belgian electronic band and DJ/production collective from Ghent, who formed in 1995. Centred around brothers David and Stephen Dewaele, other current members include Igor and Laima Cavalera, and Stefaan Van Leuven. The group first rose to prominence following the release of their album Much Against Everyone's Advice, and have released five studio albums to date. Outside of Soulwax, the Dewaeles also perform DJ sets under the moniker 2manydjs (first known as The Fucking Dewaele Brothers/The Flying Dewaele Brothers).

The group are also known for their project Radio Soulwax. Their 2002 compilation, As Heard on Radio Soulwax Pt. 2, was named the best popular music album of 2002 by The New York Times. The brothers have also hosted a show on Belgian television, titled Alter8.

Baudouin the First

(7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) was King of the Belgians from 17 July 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of the Congo. During Baudouin's reign the colony of Belgian Congo became independent.

Baudouin was the elder son of King Leopold III (1901–1983) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905–1935). Because he and his wife, Queen Fabiola, had no children, at Baudouin's death the crown passed to his younger brother, King Albert II.

Baudouin reigned for 42 years. He died of heart failure on 31 July 1993 in the Villa Astrida in Motril, in the south of Spain. Although in March 1992 the king had been operated on for a mitral valve prolapse in Paris, his death still came unexpectedly, and sent much of Belgium into a period of deep mourning. Within hours the Royal Palace gates and enclosure were covered with flowers that people brought spontaneously. A viewing of the body was held at the Royal Palace in central Brussels; 500,000 people (5% of the population) came to pay their respects. Many waited in line up to 14 hours in sweltering heat to see their King one last time. All European monarchs attended the funeral service.

Axelle Red

Fabienne Demal (born 15 February 1968), better known by her stage name Axelle Red, is a Belgian singer-

songwriter. She has released 12 albums, including Sans plus attendre, À Tâtons, Toujours Moi and Jardin Secret. She is best known for her 1993 single "Sensualité", a hit in France in 1994.

Since 1997, Axelle Red has been an ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), standing up for the rights of children and women in war-torn regions and developing countries.

In May 2008, the University of Hasselt awarded Axelle the honorary title of Doctor Honoris Causa for her social commitment as an artist and human rights' activist. On the occasion of International Women's Day, Axelle was guest speaker at the Council of Europe during a debate on domestic violence.

As ambassador for Handicap International in 2022, she visited the organization's workshop in Colombia, where efforts are being made to clear the soil of land mines, inch by inch.

Paul Van Himst (Polle Gazon)

Paul Van Himst (born 2 October 1943) is a Belgian former football player and a football manager who played as a forward, most notably for R.S.C. Anderlecht.

Van Himst was nicknamed Polle Gazon (Polle is Paul in Brussels dialect, and Gazon means lawn in Dutch and French) due to the large number of fouls committed on him. In 1964, he played in the Belgium-Netherlands match alongside 10 Anderlecht players after the substitution of goalkeeper Delhasse by Jean-Marie Trappeniers.

Van Himst won the Belgian championship eight times, all of them with Anderlecht, the club for which he played his first professional season in 1959–60. With Anderlecht, he scored 233 goals in 457 matches (16 seasons). He then played for RWDM (another Brussels club) in 1975–76 and for Eendracht Aalst (then in the second division) in the following season.

Between 1960 and 1974, Van Himst scored 30 goals (in 81 matches) for the Belgian national team. This performance made him Belgium's second top scorer—along with Bernard Voorhoof—and the tenth most capped player for his country. He made his debut on 19 October 1960 in a match against Sweden and he was part of Belgium's team which qualified for the 1970 World Cup. Van Himst then helped Belgium reach third place at the Euro 1972. As a football manager, Van Himst worked notably for Anderlecht and the national team which he led to the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Dirk Martens

(Latin: Theodoricus Martinus) (1446 or 1447 – 28 May 1534) was a printer and editor in the County of Flanders. He published over fifty books by Erasmus and the very first edition of Thomas More's Utopia. He was the first to print Greek and Hebrew characters in the Netherlands. In 1856 a statue of Martens was erected on the main square of the town of his birth, Aalst.

Louis Paul Boon

Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht (Louis Paul) Boon (15 March 1912, in Aalst – 10 May 1979, in Erembodegem) was a Belgian writer of novels, poetry, pornography, columns and art criticism. He was also a painter. He is best known for the novels My Little War (1947), the diptych Chapel Road (1953) / Summer in Termuren (1956), Menuet (1955) and Pieter Daens (1971).

He was born in 1912 as Lodewijk Paul Aalbrecht Boon in Aalst, Belgium, the oldest son in a working-class family. Although he was still very young during the First World War, memories of a German soldier shooting a prisoner would end up in later autobiographical work. Boon left school at age 16 to work for his father as a car painter. He was expelled from school for possession of forbidden books. During evenings and weekends he studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts, but soon had to abandon his studies due to lack of funds.

Boon was thought to have been shortlisted for a Nobel Prize in Literature in the late 1970s, and even received an invitation to appear at the Swedish Embassy, probably to be told that the Prize had been awarded to him. The day before the appointment he died at his writing table of a heart attack. Very little of his writing has been translated into English, but De Kapellekensbaan and Zomer in Ter-Muren are both available in English translation from Dalkey Archive Press as Chapel Road and Summer in Termuren, and Paul Vincent's translation of Mijn kleine oorlog (as My Little War) was published by Dalkey in 2009.

Angèle

Angèle Van Laeken (born 3 December 1995) is a Belgian singer and songwriter. She was one of 2018's biggest breakout acts in French and Belgian pop music, breaking Stromae's record for weeks at the top of the Belgian singles charts with her 2018 single "Tout oublier" which features her brother, Roméo Elvis.

Angèle is a fan of Ella Fitzgerald and Hélène Ségara. She is inspired by many musical genres from French songs to electronic music and rap, which she disliked as a teenager. She became influenced by rap, particularly while performing with her brother Romeo Elvis and the rappers Caballero and JeanJass.

Most popular songs: Tout oublier, La loi de murphy, Fever, Bruxelles je t’aime, ...

Ambiorix, Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae

Ambiorix (Gaulish "king of the surroundings", or "king-protector") (fl. 54–53 BC) was, together with Cativolcus, prince of the Eburones, leader of a Belgic tribe of north-eastern Gaul (Gallia Belgica), where modern Belgium is located. In the nineteenth century Ambiorix became a Belgian national hero because of his resistance against Julius Caesar, as written in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico.

Caesar wrote about Ambiorix in his commentary about his battles against the Gauls, De Bello Gallico. In this text he also famously wrote: "Of these [three regions], the Belgae are the bravest." ("... Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae ...").

Ambiorix remained a relatively obscure figure until the nineteenth century. The independence of Belgium in 1830 spurred a search for national heroes. In Caesar's De Bello Gallico, Ambiorix and his deeds were rediscovered. In 1841, the Belgian poet Joannes Nolet de Brauwere Van Steeland wrote a lyrical epic about Ambiorix.

Furthermore, on September 5, 1866, a statue of Ambiorix was erected on the main market square in Tongeren, Belgium, referred to by Caesar as Atuatuca, i.e. Atuatuca Tungrorum.

Today, Ambiorix is one of the most famous characters in Belgian history. Many companies, bars and friteries have named themselves after him, and in many Belgian comics such as Suske en Wiske and Jommeke he plays a guest role. There was also a short-lived comic called Ambionix, which featured a scientist teleporting a Belgic chief, loosely based on Ambiorix, to modern-day Belgium.

In the French comic Asterix, in the album Asterix in Belgium, Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix and Vitalstatistix go to Belgium because they are angry with Caesar about his remark that the Belgians are the bravest of all the Gauls.

Will Tura

Arthur Achiel Albert, Knight Blanckaert (born 2 August 1940 in Veurne), known by his stage name Will Tura, is a Belgian artist considered as the most successful Flemish-speaking singer of the 20th century. Famous in Flanders and the Netherlands, Tura is a singer, musician (he plays the piano, guitar, drums, accordion and harmonica), composer and songwriter. Nicknamed the Emperor of the Flemish Song, he released hundreds of singles and albums that cover a wide array of styles, and continued to tour into the 2010s.

Maurice Carême

2 May 1899 – 13 January 1978) was a Belgian francophone poet, best known for his simple writing style and children's poetry. His work was part of the literature event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Carême was born in Walloon Brabant in Wavre, then a rural part of Belgium. Although he grew up in a family of modest means – his father was a housepainter, and his mother a shopkeeper. Carême had a happy childhood, which would be reflected in his work.

Carême attended school in his hometown, and in 1914 was awarded a scholarship to attend Normal School in Tienen. It was at this time that he began writing poetry. In 1918, he graduated from Normal School and was assigned a primary school teacher's position in Anderlecht, near Brussels.

Carême's poetry progressively took on a greater place in his life, and in 1943 he resigned from his teaching profession to commit himself fully to writing. He also translated works of Dutch poets into French.

Carême died in Anderlecht. At his request, he was buried in Wavre. His wife died in 1990. His home in Anderlecht, "La Maison Blanche", now houses the Musée Maurice Carême.

Remco Evenepoel

born 25 January 2000) is a Belgian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step.

He is the son of Patrick Evenepoel, a former racing cyclist who won the 1993 Grand Prix de Wallonie. Remco Evenepoel started his sport career in association football, playing for the youth teams of R.S.C. Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven, as well as being featured in the youth national teams of Belgium. Realising that his physical abilities made him more suited for cycling, he switched to the discipline in 2017. After winning the road race and time trial in the junior categories at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, Evenepoel turned professional with Deceuninck–Quick-Step, skipping the under-23 rank.

Evenepoel won the 2022 Vuelta a España and the 2022 UCI World Road Race Championships two weeks later.

Jean-Marie Pfaff

(born 4 December 1953) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper who spent most of his professional career with Beveren and Bayern Munich. Pfaff was capped 64 times playing for Belgium, and participated at the 1982 FIFA World Cup and 1986 FIFA World Cup tournaments.

Despite his sturdy physical build, Pfaff possessed quick reflexes and was known for his spectacular playing style, as well as his ability to produce acrobatic saves, which made him an effective shot-stopper. He was also known for his extroverted and outspoken character, his lively and eccentric personality, and his strong and charismatic leadership qualities, as well as his confidence, fair-play, and professionalism, which made him an excellent organiser of the defence and a popular figure among the fans; as such, due to his cheerful attitude on the pitch and humorous demeanor, he earned him the nickname El Simpático ("Mr. Nice Guy," in Spanish) during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. He also excelled at quickly rushing off his line; moreover, although he was not the tallest goalkeeper, his large hands aided him when coming out to claim the ball, which made him an authoritative presence in goal. Furthermore, he was renowned for his penalty–stopping abilities. Despite his goalkeeping ability, however, and his reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the world in his prime, and as one of Belgium's greatest goalkeepers ever – with some in the sport even ranking him as one of the best goalkeepers of all time –, he was also known to be inconsistent and prone to occasional errors.

Justine Henin

born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former world No. 1 tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in tennis, helped establish Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis alongside Kim Clijsters, and led the country to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001. She was known for her all-court style of play and for being one of the few female players to use a single-handed backhand.

Henin won seven Grand Slam singles titles: the French Open in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2007, the US Open in 2003 and 2007, and the Australian Open in 2004. At Wimbledon, she was the runner-up in 2001 and 2006. She also won a gold medal in the women's singles at the 2004 Olympic Games and won the year-ending WTA Tour Championships in 2006 and 2007. In total, she won 43 WTA singles titles.

Tennis experts cite her mental toughness, the completeness and variety of her game, her footspeed and footwork, and her one-handed backhand (which John McEnroe described as "the best single-handed backhand in both the women's or men's game") as the principal reasons for her success. She retired from professional tennis on 26 January 2011, due to a chronic elbow injury. In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time. She is widely considered one of the greatest female tennis players of all time. In 2016, she became the first Belgian tennis player inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame and in 2023, the International Tennis Federation awarded Justine Henin its highest honor, the Philippe Chatrier Award.

Lara Fabian

Lara Sophie Katy Crokaert (born 9 January 1970), better known as Lara Fabian, is a Belgian-Canadian pop singer and songwriter. She has sold over 20 million records worldwide as of 2021 and is one of the best-selling Belgian artists of all time.

She was born in Etterbeek, Brussels, to a Belgian father and a Sicilian mother. She lived the first part of her childhood in Sicily, Catania, speaking Italian as her first language. She moved to Quebec in 1991 and since 1995, she has held Canadian citizenship alongside her Belgian one. In 2003, she returned to Brussels to be close to her parents in Belgium and in 2015 lived in Walloon Brabant province in Belgium just outside Brussels. In 2017, she returned permanently to Montreal, Quebec, to be with her family.

Fabian is a full lyric soprano with a vocal range that spans three octaves from C3 to G5 in live performances.

She is multilingual, she speaks Italian, French, Spanish, Sicilian, English and some Flemish.[citation needed] She has also sung in Azerbaijani, German, Greek, Hebrew, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish.

Fabian has written for other artists such as French female singers Chimène Badi, Nolwenn Leroy and Myriam Abel. She also composed for Daniel Lévi and is said to be currently working with a former contestant from "Nouvelle Star 3", Roland. She has often praised the voice and talent of successful female singer Amel Bent, who was also a contestant on that show. She wrote "Dis-moi comment t'aimer" for Greek singer George Perris on his album Un Souhait. "Imaginer" was originally written in English, under the name 'Broken Vow', by Fabian and songwriter Walter Afanasieff. They rewrote the lyrics especially for Jackie Evancho, in French, for her album Dream with Me. The original meaning of the song, about a sad love, is completely changed in the French version to describe a dream of a beautiful world without war or hunger.

Jean-Michel Saive

(born 17 November 1969) is a Belgian former professional table tennis player. Saive competed at seven consecutive Olympics between 1988 and 2012, and he was also a winner in singles at European Championship 1994.

In 1985 Saive was ranked best player in Belgium, a place which he kept until 2011 without interruption. In 1994 he made it to world number one for 515 days (from 9 February 1994 to 8 June 1995 and from 26 March 1996 to 24 April 1996).

Jean-Michel Saive won a total of 130 medals (51 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze) in international singles tournaments. Some of his important titles are:

• A European championship (1994) in Birmingham (United Kingdom)
  
• A Europe "Top 12" (1994) in Arezzo (Italy)
  
• Two European leagues with Belgium (1994 and 1995)
  
• Six European Championship Club Cups with his club La Villette Charleroi (1994, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004)
  
• Nineteen Belgian championships with his club La Villette Charleroi
  
• A victory at the World Pro Tour in 2001
  

Two victories at the "Qatar Open" (1996 and 2002)

Mauranne

Claudine Luypaerts, better known as Maurane (12 November 1960 – 7 May 2018), was a Francophone Belgian singer and actress.

Brought to light in the 1980s with her role as Marie-Jeanne in the second version of the rock opera Starmania, she was regularly referred to as a "golden voice of francophone song," or having a "velvet voice”.

Throughout her career, she performed duets with various artists such as Catherine Lara ("La Langue des Anges," in 1991), Michel Fugain (three live duets at the 1996 Francofolies de La Rochelle), Eddy Mitchell, who wrote "C'est magique" in 1998 and Lara Fabian ("Tu es mon autre," in 2001). The singer also released two albums in trio with Steve Houben and Charles Loos under the name HLM (Houben, Loos, Maurane) in 1986 and 2005.

Jean-Michel Folon

Jean-Michel Folon (1 March 1934 – 20 October 2005) was a Belgian artist, illustrator, painter, and sculptor.

The first exhibition of his watercolors was in New York in 1969 in the Lefebre Gallery. One year later he exhibited in Tokyo and in the Il Milione gallery in Milan. He also participated in the XXVth Venice Biennale. In 1973 he joined the selection of Belgian artists in the XXVth São Paulo Biennale, where he was granted the Grand Prize in Painting. Over the years his work concentrated on different techniques, including watercolor, etching, silkscreen, illustrations, mosaics, and stained glass, which showed the diversity of his art. His work Ein Baum stirbt - Un albero muore, 1974, is by Museo Cantonale d’Arte [de] of Lugano. He also designed numerous posters, often for humanitarian causes. Around 1988 he created his first sculptures made out of wood. He then moved on to creating sculptures in clay, plaster, bronze and marble, while continuing to paint.

Georges Simenon

Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer, most famous for his fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most popular authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 novels, 21 volumes of memoirs and many short stories, selling over 500 million copies.

Apart from his detective fiction, he achieved critical acclaim for his literary novels which he called romans durs (hard novels). Among his literary admirers were Max Jacob, François Mauriac and André Gide. Gide wrote, “I consider Simenon a great novelist, perhaps the greatest, and the most genuine novelist that we have had in contemporary French literature.”

Born and raised in Liège, Belgium, Simenon lived for extended periods in France (1922–45), the United States (1946–55) and finally Switzerland (1957-1989). Much of his work is semi-autobiographical, inspired by his childhood and youth in Liège, extensive travels in Europe and the world, wartime experiences, troubled marriages, and numerous love affairs.

Pierre Kroll

Pierre Kroll (born 25 March 1958 in Gwaka, Belgian Congo) is a Belgian cartoonist and caricaturist.

he has won first prize in the Press Cartoon of Belgium four times (2006, 2009, 2012 and 20177) for the best press cartoon published during the year. He was awarded the "Prix de l'humour vache" in 1986 in France with Jean Solé5. Pierre Kroll's cartoons are regularly featured in Courrier International and a number of French newspapers. He is a frequent guest on TV5 Monde.

He has often exhibited in Belgium, and works regularly with the Liège gallery, Galerie Lierhmann. He is also a member of The Cartoonist, a collective and website of Belgian press cartoonists set up by Marec, where their work is made available to the public8,9. Pierre Kroll is a member of Cartooning for Peace, a project initiated by Plantu (Le Monde) and the United Nations, which takes him to frequent meetings and exhibitions abroad.

Since 1995, he has published at least one album of his drawings each year, plus unpublished and rejected works.

In 2023, he published daily in Le Soir, as well as weekly in Ciné Télé Revue, Moustique and, since 12 January 2018, Ebdo.

Every Wednesday evening, he draws live on À votre avis, the political debate on Belgian public television, RTBF.

Every month, he writes a humorous column for the Flemish newspaper De Standaard.

Arno

Arnold Charles Ernest Hintjens (21 May 1949 – 23 April 2022), better known by his stage name Arno, was a Belgian singer. He was the frontman of TC Matic, one of the best-known Belgian bands of the 1980s. After the band split in 1986 he enjoyed a solo career.

Arno sang in a mixture of English, French, Dutch and his native Ostend-Flemish dialect. For TC Matic, a band which achieved moderate artistic success throughout Europe, he wrote or co-wrote all the band's material, much of it together with guitarist and producer Jean-Marie Aerts. After going solo he released more than a dozen albums during a successful career.[1] In 2002 he received the title "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" (Knight in the Arts and Literature) of the French government. A 2004 biography by Gilles Deleux was translated in Dutch as Een lach en een traan ("A Smile and a Tear").

In the Belgian film Camping Cosmos he played the homosexual lifeguard Harry who does not pay attention to Lolo Ferrari who is incarnating a caricature of Pamela Anderson.

Kim Clijsters

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.

Clijsters competed professionally from 1997 in an era in which her primary rivals were compatriot Justine Henin and Serena Williams. Coming from a country with limited success in men's or women's tennis, Clijsters became the first Belgian player to attain the No. 1 ranking. Together with Henin, she established Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis as the two of them led their country to their first Fed Cup crown in 2001 and were the top two players in the world in late 2003. Individually, Clijsters won 41 singles titles and 11 doubles titles on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. She was a three-time winner of the WTA Tour Championships. Between singles and doubles, she has been a champion at all four Grand Slam tournaments, winning the US Open and the Australian Open in singles and Wimbledon and the French Open in doubles partnering Ai Sugiyama. Her success at the majors was highlighted by winning three consecutive appearances at the US Open.

Django Reinhardt

Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django was a belgian-born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most significant exponents.

With violinist Stéphane Grappelli,Reinhardt formed the Paris-based Quintette du Hot Club de France in 1934. The group was among the first to play jazz that featured the guitar as a lead instrument.[5] Reinhardt recorded in France with many visiting American musicians, including Coleman Hawkins and Benny Carter, and briefly toured the United States with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1946. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1953 at the age of 43.

Reinhardt's most popular compositions have become standards within gypsy jazz, including "Minor Swing",[6] "Daphne", "Belleville", "Djangology", "Swing '42", and "Nuages". Jazz guitarist Frank Vignola says that nearly every major popular-music guitarist in the world has been influenced by Reinhardt.[7] Over the last few decades, annual Django festivals have been held throughout Europe and the U.S., and a biography has been written about his life. In February 2017, the Berlin International Film Festival held the world premiere of the French film Django.

Sandra Kim

Sandra Caldarone (born 15 October 1972), better known as Sandra Kim, is a Belgian singer of Italian descent who won the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 in Bergen, Norway. Her father was an Italian immigrant from Torrebruna in the Province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

At the time of her Eurovision win, she was only 13 years old, making her the youngest winner of the contest, even though the lyrics of her song "J'aime la vie" ("I love life") claim her to be 15; the Swiss petitioned to have the song disqualified after her real age was revealed. This petition ended up failing and Kim went on to win that year's Eurovision Song Contest. Kim also represented Belgium at the Yamaha Music Festival in Tokyo during the autumn of 1986 and sang the title song for the French animated television series Il était une fois... la vie. Kim's pop rock album Make Up was released on 12 May 2011, containing songs written by famous Belgian artists like Salvatore Adamo, Dani Klein (Vaya Con Dios), Ozark Henry, Anthony Sinatra (Piano Club), Jacques Duval and David Bartholomé (Sharko). She also won the first season of the Belgian version of The Masked Singer as “Queen”.

Adamo

Salvatore, Knight Adamo (November 1, 1943) is a Belgian-Italian musician, singer and composer, who is known for his romantic ballads. Adamo was born in Comiso, Sicily, Italy, and has lived in Belgium since the age of three, which is why he has dual citizenship. By 1964, he was the world's best-selling artist behind The Beatles. Through his career, he sold more than 80 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide, making him the best-selling Belgian artist of all time, and one of the most commercially successful musicians in the world.

He first gained popularity throughout Europe and later in the Middle East, Latin America, Japan, and the United States. Adamo mainly performs in French but has also sung in Italian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Turkish. "Tombe la neige", "La nuit", "Vous permettez, Monsieur ?", "Inch'Allah" and "C'est ma vie" remain his best known songs.

Since 2001 Adamo holds the Belgian noble title of Ridder, similar to the English title of "Knight".

James Ensor

James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949)[1] was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX.

During the late 19th century, much of Ensor's work was rejected as scandalous, particularly his painting Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 (1888–89). The Belgian art critic Octave Maus famously summed up the response from contemporaneous art critics to Ensor's innovative (and often scathingly political) work: "Ensor is the leader of a clan. Ensor is the limelight. Ensor sums up and concentrates certain principles which are considered to be anarchistic. In short, Ensor is a dangerous person who has great changes. ...

Ensor's paintings continued to be exhibited and he gradually won acceptance and acclaim. In 1895 his painting The Lamp Boy (1880) was acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and he had his first solo exhibition in Brussels.[8] By 1920 he was the subject of major exhibitions; in 1929 he was named a Baron by King Albert, and was the subject of the Belgian composer Flor Alpaerts's James Ensor Suite; and in 1933 he was awarded the band of the Légion d'honneur. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, after considering Ensor's 1887 painting Tribulations of Saint Anthony (now in MoMA's collection), declared Ensor the boldest painter working at that time.

Morris

Maurice De Bevere (1 December 1923 – 16 July 2001), better known as Morris, was a Belgian cartoonist, comics artist, illustrator and the creator of Lucky Luke, a bestselling comic series about a gunslinger in the American Wild West. He was inspired by the adventures of the historic Dalton Gang and other outlaws. It was a bestselling series for more than 50 years that was translated into 23 languages and published internationally. He collaborated for two decades with French writer René Goscinny on the series. Morris's pen name is an Anglicized version of his first name.

Jean Neuhaus (junior)

Jean Neuhaus, né le 19 mars 1877 à Bruxelles et mort en 195], est un chocolatier belge, petit-fils de Jean Neuhaus pharmacien et confiseur suisse, fondateur de la chocolaterie Neuhaus et fils de Frederic Neuhaus. Il est classé parmi les 100 plus grands Belges lors de l'émission Les Plus Grands Belges en 2005.

En 1912, il invente il crée le premier chocolat fourré, la praline. Il reprend la pharmacie-confiserie-chocolaterie familiale se trouvant galerie de la Reine.

Trois ans plus tard son épouse, Louise Agostini, imagine une nouvelle façon plus raffinée pour vendre des pralines : c'est la naissance du ballotin, dont le but était de ne pas endommager les pralines.

Romelu Lukaku

Romelu Lukaku Bolingoli (born 13 May 1993) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Roma, on loan from Premier League club Chelsea, and the Belgium national team.

Currently playing in Roma team on loan from Chelsea.

Pierre Marcolini

(12 July 1964) is a Belgian chocolatier born in Charleroi, Belgium.

From the age of 14, he devoted himself to chocolate with an almost religious zeal. Utterly passionate, the young Marcolini knew it, he could feel it: he would be a chocolatier. No question.

Avant-garde, ahead of the curve, pioneering, innovative… these are just a few labels often pinned to Pierre Marcolini, the fanatical “Chocolate man”.

Determined to revolutionise the role of a chocolatier, he champions cocoa planters and the regions where they work by paying them a fair price. He selects only the highest quality ingredients and insists on an environmentally sustainable and ethical approach to artisanal chocolate production.

In this way, Marcolini assures that his insatiable obsession with taste can go on forever.

Marcolini received the first national prize of artistic merit in 1988. In 1991, he was named "premier pâtissier glacier de Belgique" (best Belgian cake-and-icecream maker). In addition to the Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie in 1995, Marcolini won the coupe européenne de pâtisserie in 2000.[19] The tourist office of Brussels has named him "Ambassadeur du Tourisme" (tourism ambassador). In January 2015, Marcolini received the honorary title of "Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite Agricole" (officer of the order of agricultural merit).

François Englert

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2013

Born: 6 November 1932, Etterbeek, Belgium

Affiliation at the time of the award: Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

Prize motivation: “for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider”

François Englert was born in Etterbeek, Belgium. His family was of Jewish origin and during the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, Englert concealed his Jewish roots and hid at different orphanages. He was first educated as an electrical-mechanical engineer and later received his Ph.D. in physics in 1959 from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After spending two years at Cornell University in the U.S., Englert returned to Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he has continued his work. François Englert is married with five children.

According to modern physics, matter consists of a set of particles that act as building blocks. Between these particles lie forces that are mediated by another set of particles. A fundamental property of the majority of particles is that they have a mass. Independently of one another, in 1964 both Peter Higgs and the team of François Englert and Robert Brout proposed a theory about the existence of a particle that explains why other particles have a mass. In 2012, two experiments conducted at the CERN laboratory confirmed the existence of the Higgs particle.

Jo Bogaert, Technotronic

Technotronic was a Belgian electronic music project formed in 1987 by Jo Bogaert, best known for the 1989 single "Pump Up the Jam", which features vocals by Ya Kid K. The song peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The single and was followed by the album of the same name which was released the same year and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard 200. They achieved further success with the singles "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)" and "Move To This". Technotronic went on to release the albums Body to Body (1991) and Recall (1995).

Rocco Granata

(born 16 August 1938) is an Italian-Belgian singer, songwriter, and accordionist.

Granata was born in Figline Vegliaturo, Calabria, southern Italy; but his parents immigrated to Belgium when he was aged ten. Rocco's father was a coal miner, but Granata pursued music instead. He played accordion and toured Belgium with his band, 'The International Quintet'. He then released the songs "Manuela" / "Marina" as a single in 1959; the B-side became an international hit, reaching #1 in Belgium and in Germany as well as charting across Europe and in the United States. It sold over one million copies in Germany alone, and was awarded a gold disc. It has been covered many times by artists such as Willy Alberti, Marino Marini, Ilham al-Madfai, Dalida and Louis Armstrong.

After the success of "Marina", Granata toured the world, including dates at Carnegie Hall. A feature film entitled Marina was released in 1960, which set the stage for a string of German hits. He also appeared in Italy at the Sanremo Festival in 1961.

Granata later became a successful record producer. He owned the record labels Cardinal Records and Granata Records, and has produced Marva, Louis Neefs, Miel Cools, and De Elegasten.

In 1989, Granata commissioned a dance remix of "Marina", which again topped the Belgian charts as well as those of Italy, France and Germany. He has appeared regularly on Belgian television, and served as a jury member for the 2002 Flemish preliminaries for the Eurovision Song Contest. In March 2000 he was awarded the ZAMU Lifetime Achievement Award by the Belgian music industry.

Granata has released some 65 singles over the course of his career.

In 2013 his early life was captured in another movie named Marina.

Yves Mattagne,

born 2 March 1963 in Etterbeek, is a Belgian chef.

Awards

1991: 1st Michelin star

1997: 2nd Michelin star

Since 2020, he has been head chef at the traditional restaurant La Villa Lorraine (Brussels).

In 1971, Yves Mattagne discovered the hotel industry at the hotel-pension Les Pingouins on the Belgian coast. Mattagne began his career after his military service at the Brussels Hilton hotel, after which he became head chef of the gourmet restaurant at the chain's hotel at Gatwick airport. He then returned to Belgium to work at Michel Beyls' L'Orangerie. He then worked for eight months in Jacques Le Divellec's Paris restaurant.

In January 1990, he opened the Sea Grill. In 1991, he was awarded his first Michelin star, and in 1997, his second. For years he had ambitions of a third Michelin star, but it has not yet been awarded. In September 2011, the former chief inspector of Michelin Benelux revealed why he could not award a third star; the restaurant is not mentioned by name, but for connoisseurs it is clear that this is the restaurant to which it belongs.

In 2005, Mattagne supported Christian Lohse (de) in the start-up phase of the Berlin fish restaurant Fischers Fritz. In July 2010, Mattagne took over the restaurant at the SAS Hotel, whose staff had previously been employed by the hotel chain.

The restaurant has always specialised in fish and shellfish. The dish Lobster à la presse is famous, for which a special Christofle press is used. One of only three examples is also in the Christofle museum, and another is in the Paris restaurant of Jacques Le Divellec, chef Mattagne's teacher, for whom the lobster press was created.

Eden Hazard

Eden Michael Walter Hazard (born 7 January 1991) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a winger or attacking midfielder for Lille, Chelsea and Real Madrid, as well as for the Belgium national team. Known for his creativity, dribbling, passing and vision, Hazard is regarded as one of the best players of his generation.

Family Borlée

Jacques, Olivia, Alizia, Jonathan, Kevin, Dylan, Ryan, Jean-Pierre

The progenitor of the Borlee family is Jacques (born 1957), bronze medalist at the 1983 European Indoor Championships in Budapest on 200 m, while his first wife Edith Demaertelaere (born 1964) was a good sprinter with a personal best of 23.89. Six of his seven children are athletes (the first five born from the first marriage with Edith, the last two born from a second marriage).

The eldest daughter Olivia (born 1986) won the silver medal at the Olympics, which was upgraded to gold in 2016 due to the Russian team's disqualification due to doping, and the world bronze at the 2007 Osaka World Championships with the 4 × 100 m relay and the other daughter Alizia (born 1991) was also a decent sprinter. The four sons are all 400 m specialists, the twins Jonathan and Kevin (born 1988), both Olympic finalists in London 2012, Dylan (born 1992) and the youngest Rayane. In addition, Jacques' older brother Jean-Pierre (born 1947) was also a sprinter.

In 2015 the Belgian men's 4 × 400 metres relay team won the Belgian National Sports Merit Award (Trophée national du Mérite sportif) award assigned to the components Dylan Borlée, Jonathan Borlée, Kevin Borlée, Antoine Gillet et Julien Watrin.

In an interview of 21 August 2013 released to the major Italian sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Jacques Borlée stated that he was inspired by his training methods to Sandro Calvesi, in turn the progenitor of one of the greatest families of Italian athletics, the Ottoz family.

Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne

Brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne CMW (French: [daʁdɛn]; born 21 April 1951) and Luc Dardenne CMW (born 10 March 1954), collectively referred to as the Dardenne brothers, are a Belgian filmmaking duo. They write, produce, and direct their films together.[1] They also own the production company Les Films du Fleuve.

The Dardennes began making narrative and documentary films in the late 1970s. They came to international attention in the mid-1990s with La Promesse (The Promise). They won their first major international film prize when Rosetta won the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. Their work tends to reflect left-wing themes and points-of-view.

In 2002, Olivier Gourmet won Best Actor at Cannes for the Dardennes' Le Fils (The Son). In 2005, they won the Palme d'Or a second time for their film L'Enfant (The Child), putting them in an elite club, at the time, of only seven. Their film, Le Silence de Lorna (Lorna's Silence), won Best Screenplay at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and was released in Europe in the fall. Their film The Kid with a Bike won the Grand Prix at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, received one Golden Globe nomination and eight Magritte Award nominations. Jean-Pierre was the jury president for the Cinéfoundation and Short Films sections of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, their film Deux jours, une nuit (Two Days, One Night) received nine Magritte Award nominations (winning three) and one Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Marion Cotillard. Their 2019 feature Young Ahmed won them the Best Director Award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Their 2022 film Tori and Lokita won the 75th Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

The film Tori and Lokita will be presented on 20 March 2024 at Cineteatro SantaMarzio.

Nafissatou Thiam

Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam (born 19 August 1994) is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thiam is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title and only the second woman after Jackie Joyner-Kersee to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event.

She won the gold medals at the 2017 and 2022 World Championships, and 2018 and 2022 European Championships as well as the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships. Thiam was voted IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year in 2017. She was a Belgian flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Games.

In May 2017, at the Hypo-Meeting in Götzis, Austria, Thiam became only the fourth woman to break the heptathlon 7000-point barrier. In March 2023, at the European Indoor Championships, on her way to the record third European pentathlon title, she broke the world record set in 2012 at the same Ataköy Arena by Ukraine’s Nataliya Dobrynska, totalling a score of 5055 points. In doing so, Thiam became the first ever Belgian woman to set an official athletics world record (indoor or outdoor).

As of March 2023, Thiam holds the Belgian records in the heptathlon and pentathlon, javelin and long jump (out and indoors). She holds the world record for the high jump discipline within the heptathlon competition, set in 2019.