I hear the songs in your new tour En wat dan? (And What Then?) are all about failed romance.

It's all songs about separating and breaking up. People are a little worried that it's all sad songs, but that's absolutely not the case. There's even one song written by [Flemish comedian] Urbanus. It's called Vaarwel Theo, and it's about suicide. Theo is a boy who's about to jump off a bridge and end it all. He has a wooden block tied round his neck, and along comes Urbanus to tell him he's getting it all wrong and how to do it right. It's really funny. The lyrics are beautiful.

What else is on the programme?

We're performing a whole range of songs by Bruce Springsteen, George Michael, Living Color, Pink Floyd. Not that they're all immediately recognisable. We wanted to give them a spin of our own, so they're not just a bunch of covers. Most of the songs are in English, but we had a huge range of choice. At least half of all pop songs are about leaving, breaking up, losing a loved one. We all brought our favourites to the table, and then we had to sort out which ones we could do and which ones people would want to hear. I stopped performing with the band Eden about eight years ago. We were about to bring out our third CD, and I had the feeling I wanted to do something different, but the others weren't so open to changes, like bringing in other people or trying different things. Then I got the chance to work on the music channel TMF, and that led to Studio Brussel. So I left.

And how was that break up?

We split up on friendly terms. But I miss it from time to time. Making TV programmes is different. As a singer you bring your own songs onstage for the audience, but as a presenter you have a role that's more fixed for you by other people. I think you can express yourself much better as a singer.

Since moving to TV, you have worked on reality shows like Expeditie Robinson and Peking Express, which last year completed its sixth season. That's a long way from dragging PA amps in and out of cultural centres in places like Beringen and Waregem.

This is the first year for a long time that I haven't done one of those adventure shows, and I miss it! I miss having my eyes opened up to foreign lands. That's a great experience, and I'm constantly amazed that I'm doing it. And to think I get paid for it as well! Right now it's not certain another series of Peking Express will be made. We always do that together with Dutch TV because Flanders doesn't have enough audience on its own. And the Dutch are not very keen on continuing.

Tell us about those cultural centres.

The cultural centres in Flanders are a strange phenomenon to an outsider. There's this network of small, local venues in out-of-the-way places that serve up a diet of everything cultural. It's not an audience like the Sportpaleis or Bozar. And there are artists who do nothing but tour around the cultural centres. A lot of the audience is made up of older people, who turn up weekly, whatever may be going on. They think nothing at all of getting up and walking out if things get a little bit loud, as we can do. On the other hand, it's also a nice surprise to find the people there, young and old, joining in and singing along.

The band put together by Savalas keyboard player David Poltrock includes you, him and the band Triggerfinger. So is this show Roos Van Acker with backing musicians or are you a band all together?

In fact, there are four singers among us who all take turns, though we also sometimes sing together. The tour of the cultural centres will be over at the end of March, but we've had requests to do it at the summer festivals, which would be great. There's also a chance of a DVD release.
We started the tour in January and, in the beginning, I was just happy to be singing in tune. Then as we went on, and the stress lightened a bit, I started really enjoying it. So there I am, standing on stage with a big smile on my face, and the words I was singing were all about loved ones leaving and people who would never be happy again. I forgot it was all about that.

The papers all suggested that this tour came about after you broke up with your boyfriend.

The whole idea came from David, who's kind of the leader of the band. He had the idea of doing a tour with nothing but songs about breaking up, and we were all for it. We're all big fans of the poet Jotie ‘t Hooft, who wrote all about death and eventually committed suicide. And that's where the name for the tour came from En wat dan? is the title of one of his poems. [The poem begins: "One day I'll be gone, and what then?"]

So how is your love-life these days?

Oh, you know. Things are quiet. I'm just going along from day to day. [laughs]

En wat dan? continues until 28 March. Schedule at www.kras.be