Kensington is a Dutch rock band from Utrecht that was formed in 2005. The band consists of lead vocalist Jason Dowd, guitarist Casper Starreveld, bassist Jan Haker and drummer Niles Vandenberg. The band has four number-one albums in the Netherlands and three Platinum-certified albums.
Former lead vocalist Eloi Youssef was in the band from 2006 to 2022. He departed following a series of six sold-out farewell concerts at Amsterdam's Ziggo Dome. The American-born Dowd was named as his successor in 2025.
De Volkskrant in 2023 named Kensington "the most successful Dutch rock band of the last fifteen years". From 2015 to Youssef's final show in 2022, the band sold out the Ziggo Dome 19 consecutive times, leading them to be dubbed the arena's "house band".[1] Kensington also performed the largest concert by a Dutch rock band in the country's history when they sold out the Johan Cruyff Arena in 2018 with 51,000 tickets.[2]
Biography
Early years (2005–2008)
Before Kensington, guitarist Casper Starreveld, bassist Jan Haker and drummer Lucas Lenselink played together as Quad, for a secondary school assignment at Montessori Lyceum Herman Jordan in Zeist. In 2005, they became Kensington and added Eloi Youssef in 2006.[3] Their first releases were a two-song promo single An Introduction To... and the five-song Kensington EP in 2007. This self-produced EP was recorded in the Second Moon Studio of Dutch folk singer Hessel van der Kooij, on the island of Terschelling, and was mixed and mastered by Martijn Groeneveld in the Mailmen Studios in Utrecht.[4]
At the end of the year, drummer Lesenlink left the band because he did not see a professional future for himself and wanted to finish his university studies.[5] Drummer Niles Vandenberg, formerly of Griffin, joined the band in February 2008.[6] Their second EP Youth was released on 12 December 2008. It led to the band signing with Bladehammer/EMI.[2]
Jan Haker
Casper Starreveld
Eloi Youssef
Niles Vandenberg
Borders (2009–2011)
In the summer of 2009, Kensington traveled to Leeds to start work on their first full-length album with producer James Kenosha, in the studio of Kaiser Chiefs' keyboardistNick Baines.[7] The album, titled Borders, came out on 17 July 2010. It was mastered by John Davis, who also worked with Arctic Monkeys.[8] The first single, "Youth", received regular airplay on 3FM, MTV and TMF, and entered the Dutch Single Top 100 chart at number 78.[9] With the album, Eloi Youssef became the band's lead vocalist after previously splitting duties with guitarist Casper Starreveld, who retreated to backing vocals. In 2010, Kensington earned support slots opening for Razorlight,[10]My Chemical Romance[3] and The Wombats[11] for those bands' Dutch shows.
In February 2011, Kensington embarked on their first headlining tour, the No Borders Tour, which sold out venues such as Paradiso in Amsterdam, TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht and Rotown in Rotterdam.[12][13] The single "Let Go" came out in March 2011 and was added to a re-release of Borders.[14] That summer, Kink FM listeners voted Kensington as the National Festival Ambassador of 2011, helping them play Serbia's EXIT Festival and Indonesia's Java Rockin'land.[15] In Indonesia, Kensington also played at the Erasmushuis, the Dutch cultural centre in Jakarta.[16] On 11 October 2011, Borders was released in the U.S. and Canada through Zip Records, an indie record label from San Francisco.[17] In November 2011, the band was invited to New York City to promote Borders, playing a show at the Manhattan music venue The Cutting Room.[18]
Vultures (2012–2013)
On 25 October 2011, the band released "We Are the Young", the lead single to the band's second album Vultures. The band postponed a scheduled 2012 tour until April to continue working on the album, but it could not be released before the start of the tour, so they test-ran the new material at a series of sold-out club shows.[19] After the album was finished, Universal Music Group expressed interest in releasing it. At this point, Borders had only sold a thousand copies, so the band was struggling financially and had to pay for the recording of Vultures themselves, and they had to pay an additional fee to buy out their previous contract with EMI.[2] To do so, guitarist Casper Starreveld said the band borrowed money from his mother.[20] The second single "Send Me Away" was released on 6 April 2012.[21]Vultures was released on 11 May 2012. The album was recorded in Berlin, mixed by Cenzo Townshend (U2, Editors) in London and mastered in New York City.[21]
Kensington received two nominations at the 2012 3FM Awards in the categories "Serious Talent Award",[22] which is awarded by a jury, and "Best Artist Rock",[23] which is based on fan votes. An international version of Vultures was released on 11 January 2013 by Universal in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and South Korea. It included a new song "Home Again", which was featured in a commercial for German ski clothing brand Jack Wolfskin.[20]
The band's third album Rivals was released on 8 August 2014. It became their first number-one album on the Dutch Albums Chart and was preceded by the singles "Streets" and "All for Nothing".[31] The band played their largest concert to date at the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam on 20 February 2015, which sold out tickets within ten days.[32] Before that show happened, Kensington announced a concert at the 17,000-capacity Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on 26 November 2015.[33] It sold out in 11 hours, so the band added a second show for 25 November, which also sold out.[34] In February 2015, the album's third single "War" became Kensington's first top ten hit on the Dutch Top 40; it peaked at No. 7.[35]Rivals was certified Platinum in the Netherlands in March 2013 for selling over 40,000 copies, the band's first certified record.[36]
Kensington also made the soundtrack for the film Reckless (Dutch title: Bloedlink), which premiered in September 2014.[37] Kensington won its second and third consecutive MTV EMA for Best Dutch Act in 2014 and 2015.[38][39]
On 28 October 2016, Kensington released their fourth album, Control.[42] It was certified Gold in the Netherlands solely off of pre-order sales.[43] The lead single from the album, "Do I Ever", came out on 1 September.[44] The album was recorded in Ennio Morricone's studio in Rome.[45] Frontman Eloi Youssef unexpectedly learned in 2015 that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant with his child, and this informed several songs on the album.[46] The second single "Sorry" was released on 1 November 2016 and the third single "Bridges" was released on 10 March 2017.[43][47] "Sorry", which Youssef said is an "anti-love song", quickly became one of the band's most popular songs.[48]
On 14 July 2018, Kensington sold out the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam. With ticket sales at 51,000, it became the largest rock concert by a Dutch band in the nation's history.[2] The band chose Di-rect to open for them.[51] The show was announced in September 2017, and was leaked early because a poster at a bus stop went up before scheduled.[52]
The band's fifth album, Time, was released on 15 November 2019 and became their third consecutive number-one album in the Netherlands.[53] Its lead single, "Bats", came out in May,[54] followed by "What Lies Ahead" in August. The band worked on the album in Vancouver.[55] The album's third single "Uncharted" became the band's second top ten single on the Dutch Top 40, peaking at No. 10 in February 2020.[56] It was written by guitarist Casper Starreveld about the death of his friend's brother, who drowned in an Amsterdam canal while drunk.[48]
Youssef's departure (2021–2024)
On 12 November 2021, the band announced that lead singer Eloi Youssef would leave the band after two final shows in 2022 due to creative differences. The band released a statement saying: "There is no argument or disagreement, but a difference in vision of the future. Jan, Casper and Niles still want to dedicate their lives to the band, Eloi no longer wants this."[57] Youssef later revealed that he first told this to the other band members two years ago while at an airport in France.[58]
Kensington released a live album, Unplugged (Live), on 26 November 2021.[59] Their greatest hits album was released on 26 August 2022. The band said, "This is our last release in this formation and a celebration of everything we have created together over the past seventeen years."[60]Greatest Hits became Kensington's fourth number-one album on the Dutch Albums Chart.[61]
Due to demand, Kensington eventually added six farewell concerts for Youssef at the Ziggo Dome, which all sold out.[62][63][64] They took place from 27 August to 4 September 2022.[65]
In April 2024, Youssef announced his first solo tour, accompanied by the Kamerata Zuid orchestra, set to begin in March 2025.[66]
Introduction of Jason Dowd (2025–present)
In January 2025, Kensington posted "It's been a moment..." on Instagram, followed by "We're back".[67][68] On 16 January 2025, Kensington officially announced American singer Jason Dowd as the band's new lead vocalist and released their first single with him, "A Moment", also performing it inside the Ziggo Dome.[69][70]
In 2023, De Volkskrant named Kensington "the most successful Dutch rock band of the last fifteen years" and also called them the Ziggo Dome's "house band", for selling out the arena 19 consecutive times from 2015 to 2022. The paper said that Kensington's most impressive commercial achievement is their ticket sales; the band first played local Utrecht venues before ascending to the festival circuit of Pinkpop, Lowlands and Noorderslag in 2013 and 2014 and then conquering Amsterdam at the arena level.[1] On 14 July 2018, Kensington sold out the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam – the largest venue in the country, selling 51,000 tickets in what became the largest-ever rock concert by a Dutch band.[71]
Like their commercially successful Dutch mainstream rock predecessors BLØF and Kane, Kensington has also been criticised for their music, specifically their overuse of "whoo-hoo" melodies and "arm-waving songs".[1] In 2016, the Belgian magazine Humo compared a Kensington song to "a pre-packaged slice of cheddar cheese: wrapped in plastic, unnaturally shiny and an imitation of the real stuff."[75] In a negative review of the band's fourth album Control, De Volkskrant wrote that "The band presents a grand, bloated sound with little substance."[76]NU.nl said in 2018 that even compared to other criticised Dutch musicians, "antipathy towards Kensington seems to be on a different level."[77]
Former lead singer Eloi Youssef poked fun at the backlash, describing Kensington's music as "our Lion King sound." Guitarist Casper Starreveld said that "it suits us, our ambition and our taste."[1]
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