K's Choice

K's Choice
Sam and Gert Bettens
General information
Genre (s)	Rock , post grunge
founding	1992
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	Sam Bettens
Guitar, keyboard	Gert Bettens
Other members
Drums	Koen Liekens (until 1994, from 1998)
bass	Erik Verheyden (until 1995)
bass	Eric Grossman (from 1998)
Drums	Bart Van der Zeeuw (1994–1998)
guitar	Jan van Sichem (from 1996)

K's Choice is a Belgian band around the singer Sam Bettens , founded in 1992 under the name The Choice . The band was musically influenced by, among others, the Indigo Girls and REM K's Choice are considered one of the most successful bands in Belgium.

history

Sam Bettens , who released music as Sarah Bettens before his actual gender was announced in 2019, had his first small hit in Belgium in 1992 with a cover version of the Hank Williams piece I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry . When he was offered a contract, he founded the band The Choice with his brother Gert Bettens . With the help of studio musicians , the first album The Great Subconscious Club was recorded, which, after being released in Europe in 1994, was also distributed in the USA by Sony Music . The first tour followed, on which the band supported Morphine in France , The Proclaimers in Great Britain and the Indigo Girls in Germany and the USA as support act. Due to the increased popularity in America, the US band The Choice became aware of the group of the same name and prohibited the use of the name, whereupon the band - based on the protagonist from Franz Kafka's The Trial - renamed itself to K's Choice .

After the release of the second album, Paradise in Me with the greatest success of the band Not an Addict , K's Choice played at various European festivals and attracted the attention of Alanis Morissette , with whom they went on a stadium tour in America in 1996.

The third album, Cocoon Crash , was recorded in 1998 with music producer Gil Norton . The European tour for this album had to be postponed until the following year because Gert Bettens was sick with glandular fever . In 2000, the band released their fourth album Almost Happy and had an appearance in the episode Doppelgangland of the series Buffy - The Vampire Slayer , on which they sang the song Virgin State of Mind . After the release of a live and a best-of album and extensive tours through America, Europe and Australia, the group decided in 2003 to take a break. Sam Bettens began a solo career, releasing his first solo album Scream in 2005 and his second album Shine in 2007 . Gert Bettens also continued to work with music. Among other things, he produced an album by Venus in Flames and released the albums Good Morning Hope (2005) and Comet (2007) with his new band Woodface .

In March 2008 Sam and Gert played four concerts as part of k's Choice unplugged for the first time since the beginning of their break ! mini club tour 2008 . On August 7th, 2009 K's Choice performed in Belgium at the Dranouter Folk Festival. This performance was advertised on the band's website as the first live performance since 2003.

On March 26, 2010, the fifth studio album Echo Mountain was released in the Benelux countries with the single Come Live the Life .

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	CH	US	NL	BE F	BE W
1993	The Great Subconscious Club	-	-	-	-	BE F36 (7 weeks) BE F	-	(as The Choice ) chart placement after re-release in 1998
1996	Paradise in Me	-	-	US121 (16 weeks) US	NL10 platinum (89 weeks)NL	BE F1 platinum (42 weeks)BE F	BE W13 (28 weeks) BE W	only published in US in 1997
1998	Cocoon crash	DE90 (3 weeks) DE	CH48 (3 weeks) CH	-	NL5 platinum (52 weeks)NL	BE F1 platinum (39 weeks)BE F	BE W15 (24 weeks) BE W
2000	Almost happy	DE81 (1 week) DE	CH36 (9 weeks) CH	-	NL7th gold (21 weeks)NL	BE F3 gold (14 weeks)BE F	BE W19 (8 weeks) BE W
2010	Echo Mountain	-	CH46 (2 weeks) CH	-	NL5 (13 weeks) NL	BE F1 (22 weeks) BE F	BE W15 (19 weeks) BE W
2011	Little Echoes	-	-	-	NL87 (1 week) NL	BE F78 (2 weeks) BE F	-	Acoustic album
2013	Waving at the Sun	-	-	-	NL34 (3 weeks) NL	BE F28 (17 weeks) BE F	BE W60 (5 weeks) BE W	Side project by Sarah Bettens , published in Europe in 2013 as Bettens , in the USA in 2014 as K's Choice
2015	The Phantom Cowboy	-	-	-	NL12 (4 weeks) NL	BE F3 (28 weeks) BE F	BE W28 (11 weeks) BE W
2016	The Backpack Sessions	-	-	-	-	BE F110 (2 weeks) BE F	-	Acoustic tour album
2018	Love = Music	-	-	-	-	BE F10 (18 weeks) BE F	BE W140 (1 week) BE W

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	CH	US	NL	BE F	BE W
2001	live	-	CH73 (3 weeks) CH	-	NL16 (7 weeks) NL	BE F8 (9 weeks) BE F	BE W8 (6 weeks) BE W
2018	Live at the Ancienne Belgique	-	-	-	-	BE F12 (16 weeks) BE F	BE W84 (2 weeks) BE W

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	CH	US	NL	BE F	BE W
1999	Extra Cocoon - All Access	-	-	-	NL30 (8 weeks) NL	BE F20 (8 weeks) BE F	BE W43 (3 weeks) BE W
2003	10 - 1993> 2003, Ten Years of	-	-	-	NL73 (4 weeks) NL	BE F9 (17 weeks) BE F	BE W22 (4 weeks) BE W
2017	25th	-	-	-	NL44 (... weeks) NL	BE F4 (20 weeks) BE F	BE W45 (11 weeks) BE W
	Number one albums	DE-DE	CH-CH	US-US	NL-NL	BE F3BE F	BE W-BE W
	Top 10 albums	DE-DE	CH-CH	US-US	NL3NL	BE F7thBE F	BE W1BE W
	Albums in the charts	DE2DE	CH4thCH	US1US	NL11NL	BE F15thBE F	BE W12BE W

Fan Club Publications

• 1998: 2000 Seconds Live
• 2001: Home
• 2003: Running Backwards

Singles

Chart placements

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		NL	BE F	BE W
1995	Not an Addict Paradise in Me	NL19 (8 weeks) NL	BE F8 (23 weeks) BE F	BE W25 (13 weeks) BE W
2000	Almost Happy Almost Happy	NL39 (2 weeks) NL	BE F46 (3 weeks) BE F	-
	Busy Almost Happy	NL39 (2 weeks) NL	-	-
2009	When I Lay Beside You Echo Mountain	-	BE F3 (4 weeks) BE F	-	written for the fundraiser Music for Life 2016
2010	Come Live the Life Echo Mountain	-	BE F11 (8 weeks) BE F	BE W30 (1 week) BE W
	Number one singles	NL-NL	BE F-BE F	BE W-BE W
	Top 10 singles	NL-NL	BE F2BE F	BE W-BE W
	Singles in the charts	NL3NL	BE F4thBE F	BE W2BE W

More singles

• 1997: Dad
• 1998: Believe
• 1998: Everything for Free
• 2003: Losing You
• 2010: Echo Mountain
• 2011: Message to My Girl
• 2013: Surrender (as Bettens)
• 2013: Hell Like Heaven (as Bettens)
• 2015: Private Revolution
• 2015: I Was Wrong About Everything
• 2015: Bag Full of Concrete
• 2015: Perfect Scar
• 2015: Down
• 2016: Evelyn
• 2017: Not an Addict 2017 (feat. Skin )

supporting documents

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: DE CH US NL Albums NL Singles BEF BEW
2. ↑ Awards for Music Sales: BE NL
3. ↑ theme song Music for Life komt van K's Choice - Gazet van Antwerpen (Dutch) of 27 November 2009

Web links

Commons : K's Choice  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website
• K's Choice at laut.de
• Gert Bettens official website
• Almost Happy live in Hamont-Achel, Belgium, 6 June 2009