Levenslied | |
---|---|
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Early 1960s |
Subgenres | |
Levenslied (Dutch, literally "life song" or "song about life") is a sentimental Dutch-language subgenre of popular music. [1] Levenslied lyrics can be sweet or bitter, light and sentimental, but also reflective and dark, about subjects such as love, misery and far-away, sunny, exotic holiday places. The darker, more sentimental songs are also known as "smartlap" ("sorrow bandage"). The levenslied is related to the chanson though for a lower-class audience, like the schlager.
A typical levenslied has catchy, simple rhythms and melodies and is built up in couplets and refrains. Traditional musical instruments in levenslied music are the accordion and the barrel organ. Modern levenslied artists also use synthesizers and guitars.
The songs are usually in Dutch but also English or Italian.[ citation needed ]
Three cities in the Netherlands, Breda, [2] Tilburg and Nijmegen, have annual Levenslied festivals. [3] [4]
Notable Dutch levenslied singers:
Notable Flemish levenslied singers:
Tilburg is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601, it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-largest in the Netherlands.
North Brabant, also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the west, and the Flemish provinces of Antwerp and Limburg to the south. The northern border follows the Meuse westward to its mouth in the Hollands Diep strait, part of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. North Brabant had a population of about 2,626,000 as of January 2023. Major cities in North Brabant are Eindhoven, Tilburg, Breda, its provincial capital 's-Hertogenbosch, and Helmond
Waalwijk is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of 48,815 in 2021 and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang and Waspik together with the city of Waalwijk form the municipality of Waalwijk. The city has an old town center, which has recently been modernized.
André Gerardus Hazes was a Dutch singer and actor. As an accomplished levenslied singer, Hazes recorded 36 studio and live albums, and 55 singles prior to his death in 2004. His music is still well-known in the Netherlands and Flanders, known for sentimental and simple lyrics.
The Netherlands has multiple musical traditions. Contemporary Dutch popular music is heavily influenced by music styles that emerged in the 1950s, in the United Kingdom and United States. The style is sung in both Dutch and English. Some of the latter exponents, such as Golden Earring and Shocking Blue, have attained worldwide fame.
Breda is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has 185,072 inhabitants on 13 September 2022 and is part of the Brabantse Stedenrij; it is the ninth largest city/municipality in the country, and the third largest in North Brabant after Eindhoven and Tilburg. It is equidistant from Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Dorothea Margaretha "Teddy" Scholten was a Dutch singer and television presenter. She is known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the song "Een beetje", representing the Netherlands.
Johnny Jordaan was the pseudonym for Johannes Hendricus van Musscher, a Dutch singer of popular music, in particular the genre known as levenslied, a Dutch variety of the French chanson. He was well known for his songs about the city of Amsterdam, especially the Jordaan district, which he sang in a typical "hiccuping Mokum vibrato", "Mokum" being the Hebrew-derived nickname for the Amsterdam inner city area. In the 1950s, Johnny Jordaan rose almost instantly to the level of national celebrity and became the "uncrowned king of the Jordaanlied", and his hit song "Geef mij maar Amsterdam" is one of the songs Amsterdammers identify with most.
Anouk Schemmekes, professionally known by the mononym Anouk, is a Dutch singer and songwriter. After her 1997 breakthrough rock single "Nobody's Wife", she had additional hit records in the Dutch and Belgian charts. Many of her albums topped the Dutch album charts, most of them going Platinum and several debuting in the number 1 position. Her most famous singles include "Michel", "It's So Hard", "R U Kiddin' Me", "Girl", "Lost", "Modern World", "Three Days in a Row", "Birds", and "Woman".
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.
"Al di là" ("Beyond") is a song written by Italian composer Carlo Donida and lyricist Mogol, and recorded by Betty Curtis. The English lyrics were written by Ervin Drake. The song was the Italian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, performed in Italian by Curtis at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France, on 18 March 1961, after Curtis had won the Sanremo Music Festival 1961 on 2 February.
Carel Verbrugge, known as Willy Alberti, was a Dutch singer, who sang in Dutch and Italian. He was also an actor and a radio and TV personality.
The Netherlands participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 with the song "Waar is de zon" written by Edwin Schimscheimer and Coot van Doesburgh. The song was performed by Willeke Alberti, who was internally selected by the Dutch broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) to represent the Netherlands at the 1994 contest in Dublin, Ireland. Willeke Alberti's appointment as the Dutch representative was announced on 2 November 1993, while the national final Nationaal Songfestival 1994 was organised in order to select the song. Eight songs competed in the national final on 26 March 1994 where "Waar is de zon" was selected as the winning song following the votes from twelve regional juries.
Kathleen Aerts is a Belgian singer, actress and host. She was a member of the successful girl group K3.
Klaas Henricus Dominicus Maria Dijkhoff is a Dutch legal scholar and politician who led the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy in the House of Representatives from 2017 to 2021. He previously was Minister of Defence (2017) and State Secretary for Security and Justice (2015–2017).
The Jordaanlied is a type of levenslied, the Dutch genre of nostalgic sentimental popular music; the Jordaanlied hails from and sings the praises of the Amsterdam neighborhood the Jordaan which, until the 1960s, was an impoverished working-class area. The genre first came to the fore in the late 19th century and reached extraordinary popularity in the 1950s, before becoming old-fashioned quickly when rock and roll came along. It continues to be sung in the now-yuppified Jordaan, as a local favorite and a tourist attraction in a profoundly changed neighborhood; already a nostalgic genre when it was first made popular, the situations it describes and the emotions it evokes are no longer directly accessible even by the older generations, a transformation due in part to the Jordaanlied itself.
Willem Johannes Witteveen was a Dutch legal scholar, politician, and author. He was a law professor at Tilburg University (1990–2014) and a Member of the Senate for the Labour Party. He was also the author of several books about law and politics. Witteveen was killed on 17 July 2014 when the flight he was travelling on, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
Michelle Davina Hoogendoorn, known by her stage name Davina Michelle, is a Dutch singer and YouTuber. Her cover of the song "Duurt te lang" reached the number 1 spot in the Dutch Top 40, the Mega Top 50 and the Dutch Single Top 100.
Margriet Eshuijs was a Dutch singer.