Frizzle Sizzle were a Dutch teenage

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

of the 1980s. The four members of the group were Karin Vlasblom (born 10 August 1967), Laura Vlasblom (born 8 October 1968),

Mandy Huydts Mandy Huydts (born April 9, 1969) is a Dutch singer and voice actress. Singer At age 9, Huydts began her career at VARA's Kinderen voor Kinderen. In 1986 she and the girl group Frizzle Sizzle took 13th place at the 1986 Eurovision Song Con ...

(born 9 April 1969) and Marjon Keller (born 1 June 1970).

History

Early years: Kinderen voor Kinderen

The girls debuted in 1981 on the second album of

Kinderen voor Kinderen (, ) is a Dutch children's choir maintained by public broadcaster BNNVARA. Since 1980 the choir has released one album of new children's songs each year, and is probably the only act from the 1980s with consecutive albums in the top 40 chart ...

, a children's choir whose ongoing television-shows are broadcast by

VARA Vara or VARA may refer to: Geography *Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy * Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia * Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia * Vara Municipality, municipality in western S ...

each November. All four of them were given a lead vocal; Karin in ''Gastarbeider'' (a song about a forbidden love between a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

girl and a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

boy), Mandy in ''Bijna brugklas'' (about the transition from primary to secondary school) and Marjon in ''Roken'', an anti-smoking tirade. Laura sang ''Verlegenheid'' (a reminder that shyness hits everyone at one moment) in an

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

nic line-up of Frizzle Sizzle (minus Marjon). Due to their age (14 was the maximum), the Vlasblom sisters left after the second album; Mandy and Marjon paid further contributions to the third album. The former sang ''Ik ben verliefd'' (about being in love), the latter ''Op de wip'' (about being stuck in the middle between a pain-in-the-neck brother and a bossy sister). Marjon left after the fourth album on which she had minor roles in two tracks; ''Iedereen gaat voor z'n beurt'' (''Nobody waits his turn'') and Ziek zijn'' (which sums up the joys of pretending to be sick to miss a day of school). She also sang the first half of the call-for-exercise ''Trim trim trim''.

Breaking out and breaking through

In 1984 the girls appeared on the fifth show to tell that they formed a

and sang about their days with the choir as a bridge between the interviews with the departures and the new batch of songs. Marjon contributed to the volumes 5 and 6 as a backing vocalist. Naming themselves Frizzle Sizzle they were selected to represent the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

in the

Eurovision Song Contest 1986 The Eurovision Song Contest 1986 was the 31st edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Bergen, Norway, following the country's victory at the with the song "La det swinge" by Bobbysocks! Organised by the European Broadcastin ...

with ''Alles heeft een ritme'' (''Everything has rhythm''), a continuation of the original

-sound. At the end of the night, they ranked 13th out of 20, receiving 40 points. In the

charts, the song went to No. 21. Soon afterwards Frizzle Sizzle released songs in English (''Never Give Up'' being the first). In early 1987 they had a No. 14 hit with ''Talk it Over'', which was favourably compared to the established

Dolly Dots Dolly Dots are a popular Dutch girl band in the 1980s. With their style of upbeat dance/ pop, they scored many hits throughout Europe. The sextet consisted of Angela Groothuizen, Angéla Kramers, Anita Heilker, Esther Oosterbeek, Patty Zomer a ...

. ''Second Chance'' reached No. 38 the same year. Frizzle Sizzle were joint winners of the 1987 Silver Harp Awards for new bands with their first and only album ''First Date''. In 1988 Frizzle Sizzle appeared on the educational TV-show ''Mijn Eerste Keer'' (''My First Time'') singing about their first bicycle-ride (backed by an on-location video).

Solo activities

In 1990 they broke up but not before lending their voices to the Herman van Veen-created cartoon series

Alfred J Kwak ''Alfred J. Kwak'' is a Dutch-Japanese children's animated comedy-drama television series based on a Dutch theatre show by Herman van Veen, produced by Telecable Benelux B.V. in co-production with VARA, ZDF, TVE, TV Tokyo and animated by Tel ...

and releasing the World Cup-themed ''Alles Is Oranje'' (''Everything Is Orange''). The girls remained active in showbusiness. *Karin made television programmes. Laura Vlasblom 01

*Laura pursued a solo career and lived with

boyband A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many ...

singer-turned-musical actor

Bastiaan Ragas Bastiaan Johannes Ragas (born 30 June 1971) is a Dutch singer and actor. Born in Lisse, he was the youngest of three brothers. Ragas learnt piano and guitar at school. He also participated and traveled with the international musical group Up Wi ...

. (She also does Dutch voice-overs & songs for many characters in animated movies. For example, she voiced Gloria in Madagascar, Prinses Jasmine in Aladdin, Thumbelina in

Thumbelina Thumbelina (; da, Tommelise) is a literary fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Travelling Companion" in t ...

(1994), Robyn Starling in Tom and Jerry: The Movie & Ariel in The Little Mermaid). In 1992 Laura participated in the Dutch heat of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

with the song ''Gouden Bergen'' (''Gold Mountains''); she had to settle for silver as it reached the second spot. In 1999 Laura appeared on RTL's live-music programme ''De Vrienden van Amstel''; she performed three songs (two covers, one original) backed by Dutch-Moluccan percussion-rockers

Massada Masada ( he, מְצָדָה ', "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dea ...

. *Mandy Huydts became a backing vocalist for megastar Rene Froger although she continued to perform her own songs. *Marjon Keller, now hosting radio-shows as well as doing voice-overs for RTL, always insisted on not being lived by stardom. Back in 1988 she was quoted "It (was) fun being part of Frizzle Sizzle, but there are more things in life". In 1995 former members of

were invited to attend the 15th show (hosted by

Paul de Leeuw Paul Henri de Leeuw (born 26 March 1962) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part ...

). The ex-Frizzle Sizzles were unavailable, but they later made an in-crowd appearance at De Leeuw's own TV-show; still

barefoot Barefoot is the state of not wearing any footwear. There are health benefits and some risks associated with going barefoot. Shoes, while they offer protection, can limit the flexibility, strength, and mobility of the foot and can lead to ...

, as in their heyday.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Dutch girl groups Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the Netherlands Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1986 Nationaal Songfestival contestants