A Dutch hit about Paris and its Grunnegs cover
This spring, Dutch artist Kenny B released a Dutch song entitled ‘Paris’ with interspersed French words, filmed in Paris. He meets a girl who happens to be ‘Néerlandaise’ (Dutch) and goes on to sing ‘Praat Nederlands met mij’ (‘Speak Dutch with me’), which should become the new mantra of many struggling to practice their Dutch. Kenny B often mentions in the media that he doesn’t like the qualifier ‘Surinam-born’ as he is Dutch, although he does have a characteristic pronunciation from his background, which adds to his appeal.
Then, there’s a short but sweet Groningen cover version by Michael, sung in local dialect Grunnegs. It’s going viral and we’ve jumped on the bandwagon. Yes, it needs more verses and I want more versions: Internet, do your thing!
(Link: www.gic.nl)
I do not speak Dutch in any form, unfortunately. However, my parents were children of immigrants and sometimes would go at each other in Dutch. My mother, from Drenthe, would, at last, in total exasperation, “say” to my father, from Groningen, “stop speaking that stupid Groningers!!!” My father would just kind of giggle which annoyed my mother even more. Perhaps that’s why we were never taught Dutch…