On 19 January 2001, Crown Prince William Alexander of the Netherlands asked Argentinian Máxima Zorreguieta to become his bride, and on March 30 of the same year, the engagement was announced to the public. To celebrate the ten years of Máxima’s presence in the Netherlands, the Loo Palace in Apeldoorn will hold an exhibition about the princess from 8 May to 4 September 2011.
The marriage was controversial as Zorreguieta is the daughter of a minister of the murderous Videla regime, and could only go through once it had become clear that her father would stay away from the wedding. At the wedding, Dutch bandeononist Carel Kraayenhof played Adios Nonino, written by tango composer Astor Piazzola in memory of his father.
Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 2:37 pm
The once very popular Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party has been losing a lot of ground particularly in provinces such as Limburg, to make a long story short. Interestingly, many prominent politicians such as Maxime Verhagen (right), currently Deputy Prime Minister (and first Dutch politician to Twitter) comes from Limburg, speaks dialect, especially as of late when asked to because it’s election time for the Dutch Senate.
Picture your favourite American or British band yelling ‘we love [fill in city or country of your choice]’ to woo the audience. And it works. In this case, Maxime loses points for not being able to fill in the blanks of a hugely popular song by Rowwen Hèze, Limburg’s number one ‘export’ who play American TexMex style music mainly in Limburgs dialect and have been around for some 20 years.
Presentator Twan Huys also from Limburg decided to see if Maxime wasn’t just ‘talking nonsense’ and made him switch to Maastricht dialect. At least he was able to fill that in. You could hear the sound of the students’ hearts strings twanging when ‘one of their own’ spoke their language.
The chorus of the song ‘Kwestie van Geduld’ (‘A Matter of Patience’) is in ‘standard’ Dutch on purpose.
” ‘t Is een kwestie van geduld,
rustig wachten op de dag,
dat heel Holland Limburgs lult,
dat heel Holland Limburgs lult.”
(’tis a matter of patience, waiting quietly for the day,
that all of Holland ‘yaps’ in Limburgs,
that all of Holland ‘yaps’ in Limburgs.)
The verb ‘lullen’ means ‘to bullshit’ or ‘talk nonsense’, but is much more neutral, so I went with ‘yapping’.
Holland is a large part of the Netherlands, South Holland and North Holland, a differentiation made by Limburgers to point out their cultural differences, especially their use of dialects in daily life instead of the ‘standard’ Dutch language.
No one give me a lesson on all of this, I’ve been hearing it for 12 years from my Limburg co-blogger.
Some 12 years ago after my first real Dutch party, someone bravely got up the next morning, made coffee and threw on a CD of comedy songs and sketches by Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie (aka ‘Koot en Bie’), one of the most famous Dutch comedy acts ever. I could understand the odd word, but this song called ‘Stoont Als ‘n Garnaal’ was something I could dig. It means ‘Stoned as a Shrimp’ (I’d rather have an aliteration, so I didn’t use ‘prawn’ on purpose), and the Dutch ‘stoont’ is incorrect on purpose, it should also be ‘stoned’.
(roughly translated)
At uncle Piet’s party
There was some very good weed
After the second ‘stick’
Everyone got a kick
But Granny Van de Kamp
Wanted to get higher
Started swinging from the lamp
And sang this refrain
We’re as stoned as a shrimp
Stoned as a shrimp
Take another toke
‘Cause stoned as a shrimp
That’s what we all are
Just two days ago I posted that “swear words in a foreign language are often perceived to be not as bad as in your own language,” and to back it up, here’s another carnival song called ‘Fok Joe’ (phonetic Dutch for ‘Fuck You’).
The opening shot of the ‘security guy’ has his Julian Assange look down pat, while singer Danny Panadero went as the doppelgänger of Pitbull, albeit with a mullet.
“I have a hit because there’s ‘fuck you’ in it,” the song of a Dutch ‘volkszanger’ (literally ‘folk singer’, but meaning ‘singer of the people’) who predominantly sings light ditties about love and life, a style that is popular in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and very appreciated during carnival.
Around 1:40 Panadero is singing at a children’s birthday party and mentions that K3, one if not still the most successful Dutch-language act ever who sing kiddy songs, should sing “a fuck you” as well.
‘Fuck you’ in Dutch sounds too banal,
but sing it in English and the whole place sings along.
On any given day you can hear songs on the radio with the words ‘fuck’, ‘pussy’, ‘bitch’ and the likes, but ‘anus’ (same in Dutch) is apparently Not Suitable For Work (NSFW). I don’t get it and neither do De Pikanto’s.
You all have to hear and see for yourselves, of course. It’s in Austrian style, very nice and clean, just the word ‘anus’ sticks out and yes, there are references to bisexuality and anal sex, as if that was ever a problem in the Netherlands.
The song comes from a 1970s song and is done here in carnival style, so in fact it’s been around for some 40 years. As well, using the argument of ‘but kids will hear it’ when the radio does play ‘I wanna Fuck A Dog in The Ass” by Blink 182 (De Pikanto’s argument) is very hypocritical. It is linguistically and culturally true that swear words in a foreign language are often perceived to be not as bad as in your own language, but ‘anus’ is a proper term if ever there was one.
If a drag queen sang this, would that have been better? I do love all these controversial carnival songs though.
Anyone remember this famous Dutch television advert with children and a song playing called ‘I wanna fuck you in the ass’? That was on TV for a while before something was done about it or not I could be wrong.
Filed under: Music,Weird by Orangemaster @ 12:17 pm
Dutch carnival songs are usually catchy, funny, tacky, use bad electronic keyboards and dumbed down enough so that everybody can sing along. After a lot of beer and in the right mood, it can work. However, the past few years have produced songs of a xenophobic and dare I say ‘racist’ or culturally ignorant nature.
In 2007 happy hardcore hit ‘Een bussie vol met Polen’ (‘A bus full of Poles’, a cover of ‘Een bossie rooie rozen’ (‘A bunch of red roses’), set to the tune of Edith Piaf’s ‘La vie en rose’) by Vlemmix & Roos was controversial, but this year a ‘racist’ carnival song about the Chinese community by duo Anita and Ed has taken first place in bad taste.
Dutch Chinese author Lulu Wang (who was probably asked to politely balance out the article, let’s be honest) has no qualms about lyrics like “A Chinese cannot see what’s above or below, in fact, he sees everything through a slit” and everybody wearing traditional pointy straw hats and black braids in the video. She argues that “the song reflects Dutch feelings of impotence toward the Chinese in the Netherlands, who are doing increasingly well.” I guess that’s one way to see things, and that last part is true, statistically speaking. I cannot imagine everyone shares her view, Chinese or not.
What if the song were about Moroccans or Turks? Or Antilleans? Or… Muslims? Think about it while watching Een bussie vol met Polen, paying hommage to the hard working Poles trying to build a life in the Netherlands doing jobs the Dutch won’t do.
I’d like to finish 2010 on a postive note literally and figuratively with some Dutch artists who caught my ear this year for all sorts of reasons.
Jungle by Night – E.T.. A young Amsterdam playing brassy Afrobeat music that are surely going to have a successful 2011.
AIFF – Life ft. Linda Bloemhard (of The Jazzinvaders). I always enjoy DJing AIFF, a Dordrecht-based Afrobeat group that rarely performs, here with Linda Bloemhard of Dutch jazz-funk band The Jazzinvaders. Please perform more in 2011!
The Madd – Je suis parti. A Rotterdam band that had decided to spilt up and do other things (I love their two French songs), 2011 will have new beginnings for them.
Caro Emerald – The Other Woman. Yes, she’s a commercial success, but rightly so. Caro does not tire and we all look forward to what 2011 will bring for her. There are rumours of her possibly singing in French, you heard it from me first. (The song kicks in at 0:35.)
Bobby Farrell, frontman of 1970s disco band Boney M has died in Saint-Petersburg, Russia today at the age of 61.
As a little girl in the village of Baie Comeau, Québec, I used to go to the local recreational centre turned roller rink for kids and roller disco my heart out to songs like ‘Rasputin’ (second (video). I also used this song when I presented my honour’s degree play in Russian Studies, as the lead characters were dancing in a Russian disco. For years Boney M and ABBA were the only disco-like music allowed in Russia from the West. Although Boney M was a German band, Farrell was born on the island of Aruba, making him a Dutch citizen. He was living in Amsterdam in recent years.
The irony of him dying in Saint Petersburg like Rasputin did (he was murdered, that’s different) is interesting, as the cause of death is not yet known at this time.
First, a recent Dutch commercial for an insurance company with Bobby Farrell in it, about getting your money fast instead of working ‘crazy like a fool’ and not seeing any money. Second Ra-Ra-Rasputin, a Russian flavoured disco sound known around the world. RIP.
While 24oranges crew is slowly getting ready for the holidays (traditional food and poker with people of five nationalities and three continents), enjoy this 14-minute legendary documentary from 1962 about artist Karel Appel entitled ‘De werkelijkheid van Karel Appel’ ‘(The reality of Karel Appel’) by Dutch journalist and filmmaker Jan Vrijman.
It was filmed in France and has some French in it at the beginning, with Dutch commentary by Karel Appel himself and an English translation. It also features music by Appel himself and Dizzy Gillespie.
Dutch beer brand Grolsch jams out Christmas music with the Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra, a troupe made up of some of the world’s leading musicians and sound engineers who play exclusively on instruments made from Grolsch Swingtop bottles.
A re-imagined version of the Christmas favourite by Ernst Anschütz has been arranged by composer Ross Power and is led by conductor Thomas Blunt, seven percussionists, woodwind players and a timpanist.
‘O Christmas Tree’ is the English translation of the German ‘O Tannebaum’.
On 19 January 2001, Crown Prince William Alexander of the Netherlands asked Argentinian Máxima Zorreguieta to become his bride, and on March 30 of the same year, the engagement was announced to the public. To celebrate the ten years of Máxima’s presence in the Netherlands, the Loo Palace in Apeldoorn will hold an exhibition about the princess from 8 May to 4 September 2011.