Ben Cramer | |
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 Ben Cramer in 2011 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ben Kramer |
| Born | 17 February 1947 |
| Origin | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Genres | Pop, musical theatre |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Website | Ben Cramer |
Ben Cramer (born Bernardus Kramer; 17 February 1947) is a Dutch singer who represented the Netherlands in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest.
Cramer was born in Amsterdam. He made his television debut in 1966 with his backing group the Spaklings, and was spotted by singer Annie de Reuver, who helped him obtain a record deal. In 1967, his first single, "Zai zai zai", became a hit, reaching No. 7 on the Dutch chart. The follow-up "Dans met mij" also peaked at No. 7, and he would have a string of successful records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His most fondly-remembered record is "De Clown" from 1971. [1]
In 1970, Cramer took part in the Dutch Eurovision selection with the song "Julia", which came fourth. [2] He returned in 1973, this time singing all four songs, from which "De oude muzikant" ("The Old Musician") was chosen as the Dutch entry for the 18th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 7 April in Luxembourg City. [3] "De oude muzikant" was seen as a rather old-fashioned song, and finished the evening in 14th place of 17 entries. [4]
Cramer returned to Eurovision in 1981 with two songs, "Marianne" and "Retour", in the Dutch selection, but both finished well down the field. [5]
Cramer was associated with the 1988 Contest providing radio commentary for Dutch listeners.
Cramer continued to enjoy periodic chart success through the 1970s; his last charting single was "Alles is anders" in 1980. The 1980s were relatively quiet. In 1989, he starred as Juan Perón in the musical Evita , and went on to appear in many Dutch-language stage productions, such as Chicago and The Phantom of the Opera . He has since appeared in TV programmes such as the drama series Westenwind and the Dutch Celebrity Big Brother , and continues his stage career. [1]
Cramer was one of the artists who recorded the song Shalom from Holland (written by Simon Hammelburg and Ron Klipstein) as a token of solidarity to the Israeli people, threatened by missiles from Iraq, during the first Gulf War in 1991.
In 2009, along with a number of other Dutch Eurovision veterans, Cramer was a special guest at that year's televised Eurovision selection.
The United Kingdom held a national pre-selection to choose the song that would go to the Eurovision Song Contest 1974. It was held on 23 February 1974 and presented by Jimmy Savile as part of the BBC1 TV series Clunk, Click... As It Happens, with Olivia Newton-John selected to perform all of the entries, in part due to the recommendation of her close friend Cliff Richard. Originally, as with 1973, Cilla Black's 1974 nine-part BBC series was scheduled to feature the 'Song for Europe' process, but Black was uncomfortable at promoting another female singer (Newton-John) each week throughout the series' run and in a rather last minute decision, the BBC arranged to move the process to another show. This necessitated a truncating of the regularly established format of the chosen artist performing one song a week on the given series, so it was planned that Newton-John would perform two songs a week for three weeks once the series started. However, a BBC strike led to the cancellation of the first show, so another revision was needed and Olivia performed three songs a show over two programmes. In the final, her performances were immediately repeated before viewers were asked to cast votes via postcards through the mail to choose the winner. An extremely low postal vote led to Long Live Love winning with just 27,387 votes.
The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 61 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956. The country has missed only four contests, twice because the dates coincided with Remembrance of the Dead and twice because of being relegated due to poor results the previous year. The Netherlands hosted the contest in Hilversum (1958), Amsterdam (1970), twice in The Hague and Rotterdam.
"Do I Dream" was the Irish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Maxi.
"Als het om de liefde gaat" was the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in Dutch by the duo Sandra & Andres. The Eurovision performance of this entry is memorable for being one of the first in Eurovision history wherein the audience clapped to the rhythm of the song.
"De oude muzikant" was the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in Dutch by Ben Cramer.
"You're Summer" was the Swedish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, performed in English by Claes af Geijerstam and Göran Fristorp as Nova. The song was originally performed in Swedish as "Sommaren som aldrig säger nej", when it won the Swedish national selection, Melodifestivalen 1973, but was subsequently translated to English for the Eurovision as the rules requiring participant countries to sing in their own language was scrapped that year. This was first time Sweden had its entry performed in English since "Absent Friend" in 1965.
Ann Christy was a Belgian singer who enjoyed success in her native country and is best known internationally for her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1975.
De Spelbrekers were a Dutch singing duo, consisting of Theo Rekkers and Huug Kok. They were known for their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1962, representing the Netherlands.
Anita is an Austrian singer, best known for her participation in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest.
Saskia & Serge are a Dutch vocal duo consisting of singer Trudy van den Berg and singer-guitarist Ruud Schaap. They are known for their participation in the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, and have enjoyed a long and successful career in their native Netherlands, where they were awarded the title of Knights of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2004.
Wyn Hoop is a German singer, birth name Winfried Lüssenhop, best known for his participation in the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eduardo Nascimento was an Angolan singer, best known for his participation on behalf of Portugal in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest.
Marcha, also known as Marga Bult, is a Dutch singer and television presenter, who has been a member of the groups Tulip, Babe and Dutch Divas and is also known for her participation in the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest.
Piera Martell is a Swiss singer, best known for her participation in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
Jürgen Marcus was a German schlager singer who was most successful during the 1970s, when he had 14 chart hits in Germany. He is also known for his participation on behalf of Luxembourg in the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest.
Blue Café are a Polish musical group with jazz, soul and Latin influences. The band was formed in Łódź in 1998 and had three consecutive hit singles in Poland in 2002-03. They were nominated in the category Best Polish Act at the 2003 MTV Europe Awards, and are also known internationally for representing Poland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.
The Netherlands participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, Norway. Selecting their song through the national final Nationaal Songfestival 2010, organised by Dutch broadcaster TROS. TROS has announced that the 2010 Eurovision entry will be composed by Pierre Kartner, with the singer selected through the Nationaal Songfestival contest. Kartner, also known as Father Abraham, is known for his song "The Smurf Song", which was a number one single in 16 countries, as well as writing the 1973 Eurovision entry for the Netherlands, "De oude muzikant" performed by Ben Cramer, which achieved 14th place. Kartner was also announced as the greatest Dutch composer by the Dutch Top 40. For the first time since 1998 the Dutch song was performed in Dutch.
The Netherlands was represented by three-sister group Hearts of Soul, with the song '"Waterman", at the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Amsterdam on 21 March. "Waterman" was the winner of the Dutch national final for the contest, held on 11 February.
The Netherlands was represented by Ben Cramer, with the song '"De oude muzikant", at the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 7 April in Luxembourg City. Cramer was selected internally by broadcaster NOS to be the Dutch representative and the song was chosen at the national final on 28 February.
Tony Servi is a pop singer from Belgium who has been recording and performing from the early 1980s until the present. He also has had several hits in his own country.
Media related to Ben Cramer at Wikimedia Commons Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest | |||||||||||||||||||||
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