Hugo Matthysen | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Hugo Matthysen |
Also known as | Clement Peerens |
Born | Ekeren, Belgium | 30 January 1956
Genres | New wave, pop rock, jazz, world music |
Occupation(s) | Musician, author, philosopher and actor |
Hugo Matthysen (born 30 January 1956, in Ekeren) is a Belgian (Flemish) singer, guitarist, columnist, writer, Master in Philosophy and actor. He lives in the municipality of Hove in Antwerp.
In 1978, he played with Bart Peeters and Jan Leyers in the coverband Beri-Beri. [1]
In 1984, he regularly appeared with Bart Peeters and Marcel Vanthilt in Peeters' programme Villa Tempo as "De Hermannen". De Hermannen were three people with sunglasses, blonde wedge and wearing black jackets with a white sweater beneath, with which they intentionally looked like the German singer Heino. [2] They played absurd sketches.
Matthysen then also started to write for the magazine HUMO, for which he would create several columns. He also founded a humouristic rock band, named "Hugo Matthysen en De Bomen", and in 1989 he delivered weekly contributions to the absurd programme Lava by Kamagurka and Herr Seele.
Together with Bart Peeters he created the radio programme Het Leugenpaleis for Studio Brussel. Later a television version came out with the (anagram) title Het Peulengaleis. Apart from that, he is the writer of TV series for children like Kulderzipken and Dag Sinterklaas and he is also author of the theater piece Frankenstein by Smrntwsk Alleen (1989). On top of that, he wrote some music texts for De Nieuwe Snaar.
The Dag Sinterklaas series he wrote about Sinterklaas (=Saint Nicholas, European origin of Santa Claus) since the early 1990s gave children in Flanders, Belgium a view on the daily life of the holy man. [3] Also, it explained some of the questions children have around the event: why Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) is black (not his original skin colour, but because of sliding through the chimney) and how Sinterklaas acquires the presents (with a special kind of money). 20 years later, Bart Peeters stated it is thanks to Matthysen that in Belgium the Sinterklaas event has not been subject of a racism discussion as it has been in the Netherlands, because the series explains the figure of Zwarte Piet has nothing to do with slavery. [4]
In 1990, together with HUMO chief-editor Guy Mortier, he presented the acts on the festival Torhout-Werchter (currently Rock Werchter).
His alter ego Clement Peerens became famous with his band CPeX (Clement Peerens Explosition – together with Ronny Mosuse and again Bart Peeters) and the girl band Hormonia.
In the summer of 2008, Hugo Matthysen again gave concerts with the Clement Peerens Explosition.
In 2010, he wrote the humouristic TV program Anneliezen. [5]
Hove is a municipality (gemeente) located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Hove proper. In 2021, Hove had a total population of 8,287. The total area is 5.99 km2.
Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include De Sint, De Goede Sint and De Goedheiligman. Many descendants and cognates of "Sinterklaas" or "Saint Nicholas" in other languages are also used in the Low Countries, nearby regions, and former Dutch colonies.
Humo is a popular Dutch-language Belgian weekly radio and television magazine.
Jan Anna August Leyers is a singer, songwriter, and television personality. He was a member of the group Soulsister and later became a solo musician and host of various television series.
Raymond van het Groenewoud is a Belgian musician. He was born in Schaerbeek, of Dutch descent, and he sings primarily in Dutch. His biggest hits include "Vlaanderen Boven", "Meisjes", "Je Veux de l'Amour", "Zjoske Schone Meid" and "Liefde voor Muziek". He refers to himself as a musician but also a poet, philosopher and clown.
The Zamu Music Awards was an annual awards show in Flanders (Belgium), where the most outstanding Flemish and international musicians of the past year were honored.
Stijn, Baron Coninx is a Belgian film director.
De Club van Sinterklaas was a Dutch seasonal children's telenovella between 1999 and 2009 based on the legend of Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. Since 2010, De club van Sinterklaas continues as a YouTube channel and a film series.
Bart August Maria Peeters is a Belgian singer, musician, television presenter and actor.
Het Leugenpaleis was a Flemish (Belgian) radio sketch comedy show by Hugo Matthysen and Bart Peeters, presented from 1988 until 1999 on radio station Studio Brussel. At the time it enjoyed a huge cult following.
The Clement Peerens Explosition, or CPeX, was a Belgian parody rock group, created by Hugo Matthysen, Bart Peeters and Ronny Mosuse, the last two being former members of The Radios. The band was known for its comic lyrics in songs and interventions during performances, all in the Antwerp dialect.
Kruidnoten are hard cookie-like confectioneries made of speculaas, roughly the size of a coin and shaped as a flattened hemisphere, traditionally associated with Sinterklaas and consequently commonly eaten in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Zwarte Piet, also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of the Low Countries. Traditionally, Zwarte Piet serves as an assistant to the saint and distributes sweets and gifts to well-behaved children.
Aram Van Ballaert is a Belgian guitarist and composer who is active since 1988. His classical guitar background resulted in a series of concerts throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle-East. Since 2012, Van Ballaert has been a composer for films and television.
Frank Van Passel is a Belgian film director and producer. In 1995, he made his directorial film debut with Manneken Pis, which premiered at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and won the Mercedes-Benz Award, Grand Golden Rail, Award of the Youth and the Prix Guillermo del Toro. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film and four awards at the Joseph Plateau Awards. Van Passel's next film, Villa des Roses (2002), was adapted from the 1913 novella of the same name by Belgian writer Willem Elsschot. The film starred Julie Delpy, Shaun Dingwall and Shirley Henderson. It won Best Feature at the Hollywood Film Festival and was nominated for three awards at the British Independent Film Awards. His TV-series received numerous awards, including a Special Commendation Prix d'Europe and the FIPA D'OR Grand Prize in Biarritz for The Emperor of Taste and the TV-critics Award and De HA! van Humo for Terug naar Oosterdonk. He was co-founder of Caviar, a production company with offices in Brussels, Antwerp, Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam, London and Prague. Since 2018 he has been working as a freelance director, directing theatre and TV series such as Dag Sinterklaas (Ketnet) and Renaissances (TF1).
Gert Tony Hubert Verhulst is a Belgian presenter, entrepreneur, singer,director, actor, screenwriter, composer, film producer, and business magnate. As a prominent figure within the children's entertainment industry in the Benelux, he is regarded as a Flemish cultural icon, known for his influence and contributions to children's entertainment in the Benelux and founder of Studio 100.
Bert is a Belgian comic strip, written and drawn by Kamagurka, which appeared exclusively in the Flemish magazine HUMO since 1977. The cartoons have also been published in the Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland, the French magazine Charlie Hebdo and the US magazine RAW. The series' protagonist, Bert, is Kamagurka's most recognizable character.
Silvana Hildegard "Sylvana" Simons is a Surinamese-born Dutch politician and former television presenter. She has served as a member of the House of Representatives since 2021 on behalf of BIJ1, an egalitarian anti-racist party founded by Simons in 2016.
Bernard Gerrit "Burny" Bos was a Dutch film producer, scenarist and children's book writer. He also worked as an actor in children's programmes on radio and television.
Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP) is a Dutch organization that campaigns against the Zwarte Piet character in the culture of the Low Countries. Zwarte Piet is traditionally part of the annual Christian feast of Sinterklaasavond in the Netherlands, Belgium, some territories of the former Dutch Empire and the Dutch diaspora on the evening of 5 December in the Netherlands and 6 December in Belgium. Saint Nicholas Day is also celebrated in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Europe and the Middle East. In the folklore of the Low Countries, Zwarte Piet is portrayed as the dark-skinned Spanish Moor companion to Sinterklaas.