Piter Wilkens (born August 26, 1959 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands) is a singer, guitarist, composer, lyricist, and producer who performs mainly in his native West Frisian language. His performances are often solo, but he also performs with a back up band.
His repertoire is a traditional ballad and folk styles mixed with rock and pop, typically penned himself.
Wilkens performed with the pioneering Frisian pop band Okke Hel from 1979 until 1986, when he went solo. Besides his touring in the Netherlands, he has toured in the United States, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, Austria, France, and Ireland. He has shared a stage with many other performers, including De Kast, Rients Gratama, Gé Reinders and the Noord Nederlands Orkest, as well as collaborating successfully with the Friese Jeugd Brass Band in 2004.
Friesland, historically and traditionally known as Frisia, named after the Frisians, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2023, the province had a population of about 660,000, and a total area of 5,753 km2 (2,221 sq mi).
Nederpop or Dutch pop music is pop music made by Dutch bands and artists.
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.
Holograf is a pop rock band from Bucharest, Romania. Since the band's formation in 1978, Holograf released 18 albums. The band won the Excellence Prize at Romanian Media Music Awards in 2013, the awards for best pop-rock artist and best pop-rock song at Radio Romania Music Awards Gala in 2014 and was nominated multiple times at Romanian Music Awards for Best Group and for Best Song.
Candy Dulfer is a Dutch jazz and pop saxophonist. She is the daughter of jazz saxophonist Hans Dulfer. She began playing at age six and founded her band Funky Stuff when she was fourteen. Her debut album Saxuality (1990) received a Grammy nomination. She has performed and recorded with her dad Hans, Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison, Angie Stone, Maceo Parker and Rick Braun and has performed live with Alan Parsons (1995), Pink Floyd (1990), and Tower of Power (2014). She hosted the Dutch television series Candy Meets... (2007), in which she interviewed musicians. In 2013, she became a judge in the 5th season of the Dutch version of X Factor.
Twarres is a folk/pop band from Wergea in the Netherlands who perform songs in both English and their native Frisian language. Their songs are primarily lush, harmonic vocal pop with a focus on acoustic instrumentation such as pianos and violins. Their debut single "Wêr bisto" won the audience's award at the 1999 Frisian Song Contest. The band has one platinum certified album and single respectively.
Pink Turns Blue is a German rock band from Berlin. Formed in 1985, they were part of the first generation of gothic rock in Germany and released their first LP, If Two Worlds Kiss with a sound reminiscent of new wave with very dark undertones and use of synthesizers, and went to become part of the developing sub-genre of dark wave.
Rachel Stamp are an English rock band formed in London in 1994. Their debut album, Hymns For Strange Children, was released in 2000, followed by Oceans of Venus two years later.
Barry John Guy is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Troy Von Balthazar (TvB) is a Hawaii-born American singer, songwriter and poet who fronted the Los Angeles–based indie rock band Chokebore. His work can be described as intense and original, lo-fi pop music.
De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig is a Dutch hip hop and R&B group based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, renowned for their musical approach of irreverent, humorous lyrics and electronic beats. Their humorous style is characterized by their frequent use of word play, lyrical flirting with languages other than Dutch and the propagating of neologisms, such as "Watskeburt?!".
Bas Bron is a musical artist and a producer of mostly electronic music from Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Josina van de Wijdeven, known as José Hoebee, is a Dutch pop singer. She was a member of Luv', a famous Dutch girl group in the late 1970s and early 1980s that scored hits in more than 15 countries. In late 1981, she went solo and was successful in her homeland and in the Flanders region of Belgium between 1982 and 1985. She formed a duo known as Bonnie & José with Bonnie St. Claire to record Dutch cover versions of ABBA's songs.
Johannes Schmoelling is a German musician and keyboard artist. He was a member of the prolific electronic music group Tangerine Dream from 1979 to 1985.
Jan de Haan is a contemporary Dutch composer, conductor and musician.
Arjen de Vreede, known by his stage name DJ DNA, is a Dutch DJ and producer. At age seventeen, he started as a DJ, and became a pioneer in the Dutch music scene playing hip hop, house, acid house and techno in renowned Dutch clubs such as the Roxy and the Vrije Vloer. He also co-founded the band Urban Dance Squad.
Robbert Vos, is a euphonium soloist, Besson artist, conductor and tutor from the Netherlands.
Douwe Bob Posthuma, professionally known by only his first and middle names Douwe Bob, is a Dutch singer-songwriter. He won the Dutch talent show De beste singer-songwriter van Nederland. He specializes in folk and country music and has released four albums. He represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Tsjalling Hiddes Halbertsma, was a Dutch Frisian writer, poet and merchant, and the least well-known of the three Brothers Halbertsma. During his life he won a certain amount of fame in and around Grou, for the poems and short stories he wrote, and also because of his success as a businessman. After his death some of his literary works were collected with those of his brothers Justus and Eeltsje to be published in 1871 as the famous Rimen en Teltsjes. It was only from 1918 onwards that more of Tsjalling Halbertsma's works were added to this collection.