EMMY D'ARC

A few years ago, we old hands from the Lokerse Feesten were out fishing for zander in the lovely shade of a weeping willow. Little did we know that the gods of music had chosen that very day to descend to earth, so that they might bestow upon a select few the coveted talent to pen otherworldly songs. We caught neither pike nor perch that morning, but for the young Ineke Tiolants it did turn out to be a day that changed everything. Ineke became Emmy, and Tiolants subsequently became d’Arc. EMMY D’ARC, then. The surname refers to a French statue who, long ago whilst still alive and well, was fond of smashing an Englishman’s face to a pulp. Her namesake Emmy, on the other hand, will only win hearts, eventually even those of the English. With the help of AI, we had a graph drawn up showing the meteoric rise Emmy’s career has been experiencing for the past few years. It looked like a ninety-degree angle to us. Between the cautious airplay that the EP “Reveal” (2021) still guaranteed her and the euphoric reviews that were printed on masses of paper in the wake of the LP “Braving Fears” (2025), there are plenty of highlights. Warming the hearts of Simply Red and Birdy fans, treating Pukkelpop and Rock Werchter as conquered territory, charming the worldwide web with beautiful videos for magical songs like ‘Angels’ or ‘What’s on your mind?’, songs with the impact of a welcoming hug in an airport arrivals hall, after a long and stressful journey. And all this whilst she has secured a place in the cast of ‘Ik vraag het aan’ (VRT), a boost so coveted that other young artists would give a lung, half a liver and a sense of their choice for it. Yes, we too can hear where Emmy d’Arc de Tierenteyn gets her inspiration from: Sinéad O’Connor, Springsteen and Johnny Cash, and perhaps Amy Macdonald too, but it is above all through her own efforts that this talented young artist from Limburg will captivate Lenny Kravitz’s audience on Saturday 8 August.