The competition rotates annually between vocals, piano and violin, and Blondelle’s second place is the highest ever achieved by a Belgian for vocals. He in fact also holds a place for the highest ever achievement for a Belgian in any of the competitions together with Yossif Ivanov, the Antwerp-born violinist who came second in 2005 and Lorenzo Gatto, the French-speaking Brussels violinist who reached the same level in the 2009 violin competition.

The singing competition was only included in the cycle in 1988, when Belgians Marie-Noelle De Callataÿ and Werner Van Mechelen figured in the top nine. Lionel Lhote, from Bossu came sixth in 2004, winning the prize of the city of Brussels. Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort, a pianist from Mechelen, came sixth in 2007.

The top six laureates of the Queen Elisabeth will give concerts throughout June in Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Liége and Mons. The performances of the winners are available as video on demand until September at http:// video.cmireb.be/vod.

Following the announcement of the result last weekend, Blondelle was ready to race back to Berlin where he is performing with the Deutsche Oper. Blondelle told the VRT: “I think I’ve just spoken to three hundred million thousand journalists, and they asked the same question five hundred thousand times, so I'll tell you right away: I feel good! It was an enormous surprise. It’s all a bit like a dream.”