Antwerp singer-songwriters Fallenium and Rubus will represent COC Limburg at the Dutch COC Songfestival on 24 October 2026 with ‘Human Throughout’, a song about identity, labels and equality.
As debate about homophobia flares up again in the Netherlands following a recent incident involving content creator Jonatan Medart, Antwerp singer-songwriters Fallenium and Rubus have announced the song they will perform at this year’s COC Songfestival.
The duo will represent COC Limburg at the 30th edition of the Dutch competition in IJmuiden in North Holland on 24 October, performing ‘Human Throughout’, a Pride song exploring identity, us-versus-them thinking and what happens when a label becomes more important than the person behind it.
The song, however, was not written in response to recent events. ‘Human Throughout’ was released in May 2025 as a Pride anthem and is the closing track on Fallenium’s English-language album ‘I’m Not He‘.
When the song was originally released, Fallenium was already warning about the situation facing LGBTQIA+ people. “Things are not going well for LGBTQIA+ rights,” the artist said at the time.
“And perhaps that is the most painful part,” Fallenium now says. “I released this song more than a year ago out of that concern, and today it feels no less relevant. I would much rather have been able to say a year later that this song now feels dated.”
Renewed debate about homophobia
The issue of homophobia returned to the spotlight this week after content creator Jonatan Medart and his boyfriend were subjected to homophobic abuse on the streets of Ghent. The Hate Crimes Unit of Ghent Police drew up an official report based on video footage.
Figures cited by the artists also point to a wider problem. According to Unia, Belgium’s equality body, it received 311 reports of discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation in 2025, averaging almost one report a day. Hate crimes accounted for 39% of all cases.
Recent figures on young people are also raising concerns. A nationwide HBSC 2025 study by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute found that only 22% of boys in Dutch secondary education held a positive attitude towards homosexuality, compared with 51% of girls. In 2021, the figures were 40% and 78% respectively.
Flemish research by the Youth Research Platform (JOP) uses a different methodology but identifies a similar gender gap. In 2023, boys scored an average of 4.00 out of 10 on a scale measuring homophobic attitudes, compared with 2.20 among girls. Homophobic attitudes had increased significantly among both groups compared with 2018.
“That difference between boys and girls is confronting,” says Rubus, the stage name of singer-songwriter Bram Van Hecke, who took part in ‘The Voice van Vlaanderen‘ this year as a member of Maarten Vancoillie and Dorothee Dauwe’s team.
“Being a boy is not the problem. But with the rise of the manosphere, we urgently need to ask ourselves what ideas about masculinity, femininity and sexuality young men are being exposed to today.”
‘I’m not he’
‘Human Throughout’ was written by Fallenium and draws on the songwriter’s personal experience as a queer and non-binary artist, while deliberately addressing a broader question about how people are perceived.
The lyrics include the line “I’m not he”, a reference to the title of Fallenium’s second full-length album, ‘I’m Not He’. Another line, “I march in high-heeled shoes”, is autobiographical: Fallenium is known for performing in pumps or high heels.
“The song starts with me, because ultimately you can only write honestly from your own experience,” Fallenium says. “But ‘Human Throughout’ is not a song that says, ‘look at me, I’m non-binary’.
It asks a bigger question: when do we stop seeing someone as a human being and start seeing that person only as ‘the gay person’, ‘the trans person’, ‘the migrant’, ‘the Black woman’, ‘the Muslim’ or any other label?”
The song repeatedly returns to its central message: “Without any doubt, I’m human throughout.”
“Differences do not have to disappear. We are not all the same, and we do not have to become the same. But there is no hierarchy in being human. You do not have to understand me to grant me dignity. I do not have to understand you to grant you that same dignity.”
‘Homophobia does not have one skin colour, religion or postcode’
Fallenium and Rubus say the same principle should also inform the debate following incidents such as the one involving Medart.
“When something like this happens, we very quickly look for the group we can hold responsible,” Fallenium says. “Problems have to be named and behaviour must be condemned. But homophobia does not have one skin colour, one religion, one sex, one gender or one postcode. Neither does racism. Neither does misogyny. Neither does transphobia.”
“You can fight discrimination without once again turning entire groups into ‘the others’,” Rubus adds. “That is precisely what Human Throughout is about for me.”
‘Equality is too important to be defended only by those being attacked’
Rubus is himself heterosexual and cisgender. He says that is precisely why he wants to perform the song alongside Fallenium.
“I am not abused because I am heterosexual. Nobody questions my right to exist because I am cisgender,” he says. “So it would be very easy to think: this has nothing to do with me. But that is exactly what I think is wrong.”
“Why should only LGBTQIA+ people stand up against homophobia and transphobia? Why should only people of colour fight racism and only women fight sexism? Equality is too important to be defended only by the people who are being attacked.”
“It is not about speaking on behalf of someone else. It is about not staying silent when someone else is treated as inferior. Nobody is forcing anything down my throat by making different forms of love and identity visible. As a cisgender heterosexual man, I lose nothing because another man loves a man. I lose nothing because someone is trans. So why would I stand on the sidelines?”
‘What could be more rebellious?’
For Fallenium, the gap between boys’ and girls’ attitudes also connects to another theme in ‘Human Throughout’: the way femininity is still often portrayed as a weakness.
“Boys learn very early what they especially must not be. Not too soft. Not too emotional. Not too flamboyant. Above all, not too feminine. As if femininity is something a boy has to distance himself from to be taken seriously as a man.”
“Masculinity is not the problem. But femininity is not the enemy either. Gentleness is not weakness. Femininity is not weakness.”
Rubus adds: “What is actually more masculine than a man or non-binary person walking onto a stage in high heels in a society that has spent years teaching you that you must not be too feminine? Could anything be more rebellious?”
‘Three minutes of music will not solve homophobia’
The pair are also keen not to overstate what a single song can achieve.
“We are not arrogant enough to think that three minutes of music will solve homophobia, racism or transphobia,” Fallenium says. “But culture does have an impact. What children see, read and hear helps determine what becomes familiar and normal.”
“The ideal would be for a gay person, a trans person or anyone who falls outside a traditional norm to one day be such an ordinary part of our culture that no explanation is needed.”
“You do not always have to win a debate with music,” Rubus says. “Sometimes you can make someone feel something for three minutes. Understanding can begin there too.”
COC Songfestival in IJmuiden
Fallenium and Rubus will perform ‘Human Throughout’ at the 30th COC Songfestival at the Haventheater in IJmuiden on Saturday 24 October 2026, representing COC Limburg.
They will be joined on stage by Antwerp singers Lola Seret and Estée Pardo, as well as violinist Stijn Vande Voorde from Hamme.
‘Human Throughout’ has also been released in French as ‘Humain enfin‘. The song features on Fallenium’s latest album, ‘Depuis le jour où l’on est né‘, released this year.
For Fallenium, however, the English title remains the clearest summary of the song’s message.
“’Human Throughout’ literally means: human through and through. Not trans first and human afterwards. Not gay first and human afterwards. Not Black, white, religious, non-religious, man or woman first and human afterwards.”
“Just human. Through and through.”
