Johanna Louise "Anneke" Grönloh (; 7 June 1942 – 14 September 2018) was a Dutch singer. She had a successful career starting in 1959 that lasted throughout the 1960s, and scored a hit with " Brandend Zand", one of the best-selling Dutch songs of all time.

Early life

Grönloh was born in Tondano,

North Sulawesi North Sulawesi () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is mainly located on the Minahasa Peninsula of the island of Sulawesi, south of the Philippines and southeast of Sabah, Malaysia, but also includes various small archipel ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

(present-day

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

), and spent her early years in the Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies in a Japanese

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

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. Her father, an officer of the

Royal Netherlands East Indies Army The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (; KNIL, ; ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The KNIL's air arm was the Royal Netherl ...

(KNIL), had been interned before her birth. She was a third cousin once removed of Dutch writer Nescio. After the war, the family moved to the Netherlands, and Grönloh grew up in

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

Career

During her time in secondary school, she met Peter Koelewijn with whom she began performing at parties. In 1959, her career took off after she won a talent show. On 31 August 1964 she married Wim-Jaap van der Laan, a DJ at the Dutch radio station Radio Veronica, and in 1965 began singing in the ''Sleeswijk Revue''. Throughout the 1960s she scored hits, especially with " Brandend zand" (''Burning sand''). At the height of her fame, Grönloh represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 with the song " Jij bent mijn leven" (''You are my life''), finishing in tenth place, and by the end of the 1960s she had begun an international singing career. Besides popular music, Grönloh performed songs in the kroncong genre, such as " Bengawan Solo", "Boeroeng Kakatua", and "Nina Bobo", as well as jazz songs, which according to her was her favourite musical genre. In 2000, Grönloh was named "Singer of the Century" in the Netherlands because of the record-breaking sales of "Brandend zand". In the same year, she was also a participant on the television program Big Brother VIPS. In 2006 she released ''Anneke and Friends'', a DVD of her theater tours. Later that year she was part of the theater tour "Purple 100", replacing

Corry Brokken Cornelia Maria "Corry" Brokken (3 December 1932 – 31 May 2016) was a Dutch singer, television presenter and jurist. In 1957, she won the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Net als toen", representing the Netherlands ...

who could not perform due to illness. Grönloh had retired due to health problems, having played her last show on 26 August 2017. She died on 14 September 2018 in Arleuf,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, aged 76.

Discography

*"Asmara" (1960, in Indonesian) *"Flamenco Rock" *"Brandend zand" (1961) –

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

*"Paradiso" (1962) –

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

*" Soerabaja" (1963) *"Cimeroni" (1963) *"Oh Malaysia" (1963)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gronloh, Anneke Dutch pop singers Dutch women pop singers Dutch jazz singers Dutch women jazz singers 1942 births 2018 deaths People from Minahasa Regency Indo people Dutch folk singers Dutch women folk singers Dutch people of Indonesian descent Musicians from Eindhoven Philips Records artists Dutch-language singers of Indonesia Indonesian-language singers of the Netherlands Eurovision Song Contest entrants