Stef Caers, known professionally by his stage name Gustaph, is a Belgian singer and songwriter. A graduate of the Ghent Music Conservatory, he released his debut song "Gonna Lose You" in 2000, which debuted at #22 on the Ultratop Flanders chart. He released 2 more singles after. Currently, he also works as a vocal coach and a teacher at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent.
He mostly worked as a background singer and musician for various artists. Additionally, he was a backup for Sennek at the 2018 contest in Lisbon and for Hooverphonic at the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, also working as lead singer Geike Arnaert's vocal coach.
He won Eurosong 2023 in a surprising result and represented Belgium at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool with the song Because Of You, finishing in 7th place in the grand final and giving Belgium its first top 10 since 2017 and the Flemish region of the country its best result since 2010.
In 2024, he participated in the 4th series of The Masked Singer Belgium as "Feniks" (Phoenix), finishing in 2nd place.
Trivia[]
- His stage name is derived from the name of his godfather, Gustav.
- He is openly gay, coming out at the age of 14. His husband created the visuals for his Eurovision stage performance.
- He and Sennek are both from the city of Leuven.
- One of his students was Red Sebastian, who represented Belgium at the 2025 contest.