The Let Your Heart Be Heard project supported by public authorities
A project that will continue into 2026!
09 January 2026
Let Your Heart Be Heard is the festival’s slogan. It is also the title of the anthem commissioned by the festival team, which will be performed collectively during the big show of the same name at the ING Arena on 27 June. Tickets for this show are already available.
Last September, the Sing Out Brussels! choir recorded the song in the studio and shot a video clip, with three objectives in mind:
- To actively involve the members of Sing Out Brussels! in the preparations for the festival
- To have a powerful communication tool for festival-goers, the general public and all our potential partners.
- To encourage festival-goers to learn this anthem in preparation for the festival.
The project was co-produced by the non-profit organisations Various Voices Brussels 2026 and Sing Out Brussels!, under the direction of Emily Allison and Simon Paco. The festival’s musical director, Emily Allison, supervised the commissioning and corrections of the arrangement by Philippe Maniez. She also recruited the musicians, conducted the choir and approved the final mix. The festival’s artistic director, Simon Paco, put together a small team of volunteers from within the choir to develop the script for the video, in collaboration with La Horde Productions, a Brussels-based audiovisual company run by queer people, and supervised the filming and editing of the video.
The song was released at the end of October on all music platforms (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.). The video was released in mid-November and was widely shared on YouTube and our social media channels.
We submitted several applications for public funding for this project. Not all of them were successful, but we did receive support from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Equal Opportunities), the National Lottery and Rainbow Visibilities, a joint project run by Cocof (French speakers in Brussels) and RainbowHouse Brussels. The amount raised covers all the costs (around €15,000) of this project. A huge thank you to these institutions for their valuable support!
The Let Your Heart Be Heard project will continue in 2026, as a prelude to the festival. Contrary to what we explained in the previous report in July 2025, we have finalised a partnership with Bozar to organise rehearsals ahead of the festival, with the aim of getting the people of Brussels singing. Three rehearsals will take place in April, May and June 2026. This project aims to open up the festival to the city, which echoes our values and also demonstrates the important societal role played by our organisation, with a view to obtaining financial support.