Saturday May 14, 2022, a final tribute was paid to the Belgian singer Arno, who died last April at the age of 72, carried away by cancer. It was in Ostend, his hometown, that the event was held in the presence of 2,000 people according to RTBF. His last wishes were thus respected.
As the deceased singer had wished, his ashes were therefore scattered in the North Sea. A boat left the port of Ostend in the afternoon, with 35 guests on board, only “his inner circle“. We imagine that his partner, Sophie Dewulf, was present. “The singer’s fans were invited to say goodbye to him from the ‘t Hoofd’ on the Westersaketsel in Ostend (…) For 10 minutes the boat sailed slowly to allow fans to film, take photos and honor the singer one last time. The scattering of his ashes took place under the sound of Bob Dylan Like a Rolling Stone”, specifies RTL.be .
“It wasn’t about throwing the ashes to the wind like you see in some movies“, explained for his part an RTBF journalist present on the spot. Thus, a biodegradable urn containing Arno’s ashes was placed in the water before disintegrating for about thirty minutes.
The singer, by his full name Arno Hintjens, died after several years of battling pancreatic cancer. Very moved, his manager issued a press release in which he declared: “He will be missed by all of us, his family, his friends and his musicians. He will always be with us thanks to the music that kept him alive until the end.“Even the French singer Mireille Mathieu had reacted to the death of Arno, an artist who said she was a fan of her and with whom she had a duet project!”His almost testamentary desire was to record a duet with me… He had chosen one of my songs ‘La Paloma adieu’ which he re-orchestrated in his own way“, she told AFP.