Thor Salden from Schoten was the winning contestant in the Belgian pre-selections of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and he represented Belgium in the international final on 2 December 2006 in Bucharest, Romania where he reached seventh place in a field of fifteen. At the time of the preselections he was the youngest contestant at eight years old. He won both the first semi-final on 17 September 2006 and the final on 1 October 2006. In the opening show he performed together with Attic and Clouseau. His winning song "Een Tocht Door Het Donker", produced by Peter Gillis about a walk in the woods with his grandfather, was released as a single on 13 October 2006 and entered several national music charts. Initially the song reached No. 1 in the Ultratop 50, No. 2 in Belgium's national download music chart and No. 8 in the Radio 2 Top 30. After 16 weeks in the Ultratop 50, Thor received a golden record on 30 January 2007 as a result of over 15,000 single sales and legal downloads of the song, making him the youngest Belgian artist to receive this award. One of Thor's dreams is to sing a duet with X!NK who won the Belgian preselections in 2003.
Events in Schoten
On 25 October 2006 Thor and three other young people were invited to Schoten city hall where they signed "the golden book" and received an official deed for their accomplishments. The occasion was celebrated with a song to the tune of Thor's winning Junior Eurovision entry. Schoten city council also announced their plans surrounding the international Junior Eurovision final. On 2 December 2006 the announced plans were put into action. For the occasion, residents of his home town could watch the international final of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on big video screens in the market square and in the 'Forum' hall thanks to support from the VRT. Local inns worked together to provide things like soup, lemonade and glühwein for the occasion while the city council provided fire baskets and oversight. Children could make a "journey through the dark" from Thor's school to the market square.
