"Geef mij maar Amsterdam" ("I prefer Amsterdam") is a 1955 song about Amsterdam by Dutch singer

Johnny Jordaan Johnny Jordaan was the pseudonym for Johannes Hendricus van Musscher (7 February 1924 – 8 January 1989), a Dutch singer of popular music, in particular the genre known as ''levenslied'', a Dutch variety of the French ''chanson''. He was well kn ...

. The text is by

Pi Veriss The number (; spelled out as "pi") is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, approximately equal to 3.14159. The number appears in many formulas across mathematics and physics. It is an irratio ...

, and the music is written by Harry de Groot. A hit song when it was first released, it is one of the songs Amsterdammers identify with most.

Song and lyrics

The song is a waltz in 4/4, with

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

accompaniment. The lyrics proclaim the singer's preference over all cities, especially

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The verse narrates how a klaverjas club from Amsterdam took a week-long trip to Paris. The club secretary had studied French for a month but was unintelligible, then ended up singing on the Place Pigalle. The baker suffered from vertigo on the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

and was saved only by the butcher, before everyone went down to the Champs-Elysees where they sang "Geef mij maar Amsterdam". The song ends, "I'd rather be penniless in Mokum than have a million bucks in Paris."

Refrain

Geef mij maar Amsterdam, dat is mooier dan Parijs
Geef mij maar Amsterdam, mijn Mokums paradijs
Geef mij maar Amsterdam, met zijn Amstel en het IJ
Want in Mokum ben ik rijk en gelukkig tegelijk
Geef mij maar Amsterdam! (I prefer Amsterdam, it's nicer than Paris; I prefer Amsterdam, my Mokum paradise. I prefer Amsterdam, with the

Amstel The Amstel () is a river in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands. It flows from the Aarkanaal and Drecht in Nieuwveen northwards, passing Uithoorn, Amstelveen, and Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, to the IJ in Amsterdam. Annually, the riv ...

and the IJ; Because in Mokum I'm rich and happy, I prefer Amsterdam.)

References

{{authority control 1955 songs Songs about Amsterdam