Gerwin Pardoel (born 12 May 1981), better known by his

stage name A stage name is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers—such as actors, comedians, singers, and musicians. Such professional aliases are adopted for a wide variety of reasons and they may be similar, or nearly identical, to an individu ...

Gers Pardoel or mononymously as Gers, is a Dutch rapper. He rose to fame in 2009, due to his successful collaboration with

The Opposites The Opposites are a Dutch rap group, consisting of rappers (Willy) and Twan van Steenhoven ( Big2). The two started rapping when de Bruin had to write a rap for his teacher as a punishment. Willem realized his rap potential and decided to continu ...

on the single " Broodje Bakpao". Pardoel's debut studio album ''

Deze wereld is van jou ''Deze wereld is van jou'' () is the debut studio album by Dutch artist Gers Pardoel. It was released on 14 October 2011 through TopNotch TopNotch is a Dutch record label specializing in hip-hop. The label was founded in 1995, and is run by Vi ...

'' was released in November 2011 and was certified Platinum by the NVPI. The

Nederhop ::''This article is written from a predominantly Netherlands viewpoint – neglecting much of the Belgian (Flanders) scene, let alone Dutch- or mixed-language rap/hip hop in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, nor Suriname!'' ...

artist is best known for his number-one single " Ik neem je mee", which became the most successful Dutch-language and Dutch-artist hit in the

Dutch Top 40 The Dutch Top 40 ( nl, Nederlandse Top 40) is a weekly music chart compiled by ''Stichting Nederlandse Top 40''. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica ...

ever.

Biography

1981–2002: Early life

Gerwin Pardoel was born on 12 May 1981 in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, thirty-five minutes before his younger twin brother Robbie. When Pardoel was young, his father was purchaser at a nursing home. Later, his father worked for the

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

De Efteling Efteling () is a fantasy-themed amusement park in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands. The attractions reflect elements from ancient myths and legends, fairy tales, fables, and folklore. The park was opened on May 31, 1952. It evolved from a nature ...

in Kaatsheuvel. His mother was a housewife and took care of the children. When Pardoel was 17 years old, his life changed when his mother died from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. His life was turned upside down and the relation with his father deteriorated enormously. To escape from his difficult home situation, Pardoel looked for refuge in roller skating. He was a very fanatical roller skater and wanted to reach the Dutch roller skating top. Together with Steffen Haars and Huub Smit (nowadays known as the characters of ''

New Kids ''New Kids'' is a Dutch comedy sketch show about a group of anti-social behaviour, anti-social youths from Maaskantje, a village in the southern province of North Brabant. It was created by and . The show was first shown on ''Flabber.nl'', a Dut ...

''), he practiced almost every day in an inline skate hall in

's-Hertogenbosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

. The hall became a "new home" for Pardoel. He reached the ninth position in a national roller skating competition.

2002–2010: Career beginnings

Pardoel became interested in hip hop. In

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, he met rapper

Postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

(Remon Stotijn). Postman and his then-wife Anouk helped him to discover the world of hip hop. They made up Pardoel's

Gers. Despite the fact that the name Gers is very similar to his own name Gerwin, "gers" also means "cool" or something like that in Rotterdam

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

. Postman highly influenced Pardoel's performing stile. Pardoel improved his rapping skills and began developing himself as a producer. He started working on songs for a future album. At some point, Pardoel showed his old friend Steffen Haars (who had become director of ''

'' in the meantime) some of his raps. Haars was impressed and put him in touch with rappers Sef and Big2. That resulted in the recording of the song " Broodje Bakpao". The hit single, which was included in the soundtrack of the movie '' New Kids Turbo'' and reached the first position in the

Mega Single Top 100 The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutc ...

, resulted in an enormous rise of fame for Pardoel. Due to this success, Pardoel received a recording contract at Dutch label

TopNotch TopNotch is a Dutch record label specializing in hip-hop. The label was founded in 1995, and is run by Vincent Patty. After some commercial success (with rap acts such as De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig, The Opposites, Def Rhymz, Postmen, and Extince) ...

. The next success for Pardoel was the single "Ik ga hard". This song, by The Partysquad featuring Gers Pardoel, Adje, Jayh and Reverse, became a popular song among teenagers.

2011–present: ''Deze wereld is van jou'' and ''De toekomst is van ons''

On 14 October 2011, Pardoel released his debut studio album ''

''. After a lot of work (the recordings of the album started already in 2009), the release was finally there. The second single of the album, " Ik neem je mee", became a great success and reached the number-one position in both the

and the

. The album was certified Platinum by the NVPI. The album also included the single "

Bagagedrager "Bagagedrager" (English: "''Luggage Carrier''" or "''Rack''") is a song recorded by Dutch rappers Gers Pardoel and Sef (Yousef Gnaoui) for Pardoel's debut studio album, '' Deze wereld is van jou''. It was released on 20 January 2012 through TopNotc ...

" among others. Three years later, another studio album was released, called ''De toekomst is van ons''. It didn't match the success of its predecessor, but includes the Platinum-certified single "Louise". Due to his musical success in the Flemish part of Belgium, Pardoel became a coach in the Flemish version of The Voice Kids in the shows 4th and 5th seasons. In the summer of 2021, the Belgian popular newspaper

Het Laatste Nieuws ''Het Laatste Nieuws'' (; in English ''The Latest News'') is a Dutch-language newspaper based in Antwerp, Belgium. It was founded by Julius Hoste Sr. on 7 June 1888. It is now part of DPG Media, and is the most popular newspaper in Flanders and ...

published stories in which Sélina van Gool (Pardoel's former partner, mother of his children, and also his former manager) accused him of domestic abuse, both physical and psychological in nature. Van Gool also posted on Instagram on the topic, screenshots of her private profile are visible in the newspaper articles. The newspaper added specifically that they were able to check police reports supplied by van Gool which confirmed her allegations. Subsequently Pardoel did not return in the 2022 season of The Voice Kids. It is noteworthy that both VTM which airs The Voice Kids and Het Laatste Nieuws are brands of

Mediahuis Mediahuis is a newspaper & magazine publishing, distribution, printing, TV, radio and online media company founded in 2014 with assets in Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Germany. Mediahuis publishes daily newspaper titles in Belg ...

. However, also in 2022, Pardoel was welcomed as the presenter of the Flemish version of Come Dance With Me on Play4, a channel of

SBS Belgium Play4 is a Belgian-Flemish commercial television channel. It is part of SBS Belgium and production company Woestijnvis. As of 2010, the channel has a market share of more than 7%. The channel was formerly known as VIER from 17 September 2012 ...

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

As lead artist

Featured singles

Other appearances

Awards and nominations

Gers Pardoel has been nominated for several Dutch awards since 2010.

3FM Awards

The

3FM Awards NPO 3FM is a Dutch rhythmic CHR radio station controlled by public broadcaster NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are rock, alternative, indie and pop, though dance and Mega Top 30 tracks may also air at times. History As Ra ...

is an annual awards ceremony by the Dutch radio station

3FM NPO 3FM is a Dutch rhythmic CHR radio station controlled by public broadcaster NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are rock, alternative, indie and pop, though dance and Mega Top 30 tracks may also air at times. History As Ra ...

. Pardoel has been nominated for five awards in 2012 and won two awards of them. , - , align="center" rowspan="5", 2012 , " Ik neem je mee" , Best Single , , - , ''

'' , Best Album , , - , rowspan="3", Gers Pardoel , Best Hiphop Artist , , - , Best New Artist , , - , 3FM Serious Talent Award , , -

3VOOR12 Awards

Every year, the Dutch

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

platform 3VOOR12 composes a top 100-list of the best songs of the year. Pardoel's song " Ik neem je mee" ended at the 20th position in the list of 2011, while Gotye's song " Somebody That I Used to Know" ended at the first position and became Song of the Year 2011. , - , align="center" rowspan="1", 2011 , " Ik neem je mee" , Song of the Year , , -

Edison Music Awards

The

Edison Music Awards The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed ...

is an annual Dutch music awards ceremony. The awards are for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is one of the oldest music awards ceremonies in the world, having been presented since 1960. Pardoel has been nominated once for an Edison Music Award. , - , align="center" rowspan="1", 2010 , " Broodje Bakpao" (with The Opposites and Sef) , Best Single , , -

Mega Awards

The Mega Award is awarded every year to the best Dutch artist of the year. It is initiated by

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek ...

and

GfK GfK (originally german: GfK-Nürnberg Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung e.V., lit=Nuremberg Society for Consumer Research, label=none) is a provider of data and intelligence to the consumer goods industry. It is headquartered in Nuremberg, German ...

Dutch Charts. Pardoel received the Mega Award in 2011. , - , align="center" rowspan="1", 2011 , Gers Pardoel , Mega Award 2011 , , -

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards

The

Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards The Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (also known as the KCAs or Kids' Choice) is an annual American children's awards ceremony show that is produced by Nickelodeon. Usually held on a Saturday night in late March or early April, the show honors ...

is an annual awards show that airs on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

that honors the year's biggest television, movie and music acts, as voted by Nickelodeon viewers. Pardoel has been nominated for one of the Netherlands Kids Choice Awards 2012. In 2013 he was nominated as well and won the award. , - , align="center "rowspan="1", 2012 , Gers Pardoel , Favourite star: Netherlands/Belgium , , -

State Awards

The

State Awards State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

are awards for Dutch hip hop and urban artists. The ceremony is held every year since 2008. Pardoel has been nominated four times in 2010 and 2011. , - , align="center" rowspan="2", 2010 , " Broodje Bakpao" (with The Opposites and Sef) , Best Single , , - , Gers Pardoel , Rookie of the Year , , - , align="center" rowspan="2", 2011 , "

Morgen ben ik rijk "Morgen ben ik rijk" (; English: "''Tomorrow I'll Be Rich''") is a song recorded by Dutch rapper Gers Pardoel for his debut studio album, ''Deze wereld is van jou''. It was released on 12 April 2011. The song was co-written by Pardoel and disc jock ...

" , Best Single , , - , Gers Pardoel , Best Artist , , -

TMF Awards

The TMF Awards are presented annually by Dutch music channel The Music Factory. Pardoel received two awards. , - , align="center" rowspan="2", 2010 , rowspan="2", " Broodje Bakpao" (with The Opposites and Sef) , Best Video , , - , Super Chart Award , , -

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pardoel, Gers 1981 births Living people Dutch rappers Dutch twins People from Nijmegen