Artist
Rob de Nijs

Rob de Nijs is a Dutch singer and actor, active since the 1960s. De Nijs, backed by The Lords, released his first single in 1962, Ritme van de Regen. In 1966 he embarked on a joint circus-tour with Johnny Lion. Meanwhile, The Lords signed their own record-deal at another label forcing them to split from De Nijs. Now a free agent, De Nijs performed at small venues and worked as a bartender for a living. His attempts to keep up with the zeitgeist ... failed; he only made the headlines by marrying his girlfriend Elly in 1968 and landing into hospital through a carcrash of his own fault. In 1969 De Nijs took part in the Dutch heat of the Eurovision Song Contest and through the Sajensfiksjen-musical he landed himself a role in children's TV-series Oebele. This was followed in 1972 by Hamelen in which he played Bertram Bierenbroodspot. Singer Boudewijn de Groot and songwriter Lennaert Nijgh helped De Nijs relaunch his singing career; in 1973 he was back in the charts with Jan Klaassen de Trompetter. The hits continued through 1975-1976, notably Malle Babbe and Zet een Kaars voor Je Raam (a Dutch translation by Lennaert Nijgh of David McWilliams's Can I Get There by Candlelight?). In 1977 De Nijs released Tussen Zomer en Winter, a concept-album chronicling the change from a hot summer's day to a cold winter's night and featuring a translation of Lou Reed's Perfect Day. In 1980 De Nijs met Belinda Meuldijk who gave up her own singing-career (after releasing a one-off single the previous year) to become his chief-songwriter and his second wife (they married in 1984). The first efforts of their collaboration were collected on the albums Met Je Ogen Dicht (Eyes Wide Shut; including the top 10-hit Zondag, which is still a crowd-pleaser) and De Regen Voorbij (Past The Rain; a reference to his artistic growth) from respectively 1980 and 1981. De Nijs had entered a decade in which he recorded English-language versions of his songs; Zonder Jou became On My Own (released in 1990 as a B-side to the English original Girls For Sale) and the 1985 Christmas #2-hit Alles Wat Ademt became Let Love Be The Answer (also recorded by US-exile singer Joe Bourne for his Bourne in Holland-album of translated covers). In 1986 De Nijs saw a dream-wish come true by releasing an album of covers from the 1950s/1960s-era; it included his version of Living Doll shortly after the Comic Relief-remake topped the charts. In 1987 he celebrated his silver jubilee; he re-recorded Ritme van de Regen for a Best Of-album and made a guest-appearance in television-series De Band as himself, suggesting an onstage-jam with his chosen support-act. In 1989 De Nijs released De Reiziger (Travelling Man) which included the bilingual single Ik Hou Alleen Van Jou; follow-up single Toerist in het Paradijs was also recorded in English. At the end of the year he resurrected his Bertram Bierenbroodspot-outfit for a reunion with the leading-actors of Hamelen. See more [+]