Marcha (born Margaretha Hendrika Maria Groeneveld on 2 July 1956), also known as Marga Bult, is a Dutch singer and television presenter, who has been a member of the groups Tulip,
Babe
Babe or babes may refer to:
* Babe, a term of endearment
* A newborn baby
* An attractive (especially female) person
People Nickname
* Babe Adams (1882–1968), American Major League Baseball pitcher
* Babe Barna (1917–1972), American Maj ...
and Dutch Divas and is also known for her participation in the 1987
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 ...
.
Tulip and Babe
In 1979, Marcha joined forces with former
Teach-In
A teach-in is similar to a general educational forum on any complicated issue, usually an issue involving current political affairs. The main difference between a teach-in and a seminar is the refusal to limit the discussion to a specific time fr ...
singer Marianne Wolsink to form the duo Tulip. They had only released two singles however when, in 1981, Marcha was chosen from over 200 candidates as the replacement for the departing lead singer Gemma van Eck in
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 ...
Babe, who had established themselves since 1979 as regular chart performers, with six top 30 singles in the Netherlands. Known as Marga Bult during this time, she recorded two albums and 14 singles with Babe, and toured extensively across Europe and Asia, before the group disbanded in June 1986.
Eurovision
In 1987, as a solo artist, Marcha was chosen by broadcaster
NOS to be the Dutch singer for that year's Eurovision Song Contest, and in a selection of six songs, "
Rechtop in de wind" ("Upright in the Wind") was chosen by regional juries as the country's entry. At the
1987 Eurovision, held on 9 May in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, "Rechtop in de wind" finished in joint fifth place of 22 entries.
Later career
In the 1990s Marcha moved into television presenting, working on shows for several Dutch channels. In 2000, she joined fellow Dutch Eurovision veterans
Maggie MacNeal
Maggie MacNeal (born Sjoukje Lucie van 't Spijker; 5 May 1950) is a Dutch singer. She was a member of Mouth & MacNeal, a pop duo from the Netherlands, who are best known for their million-selling recording of " How Do You Do" in 1972, which to ...
and
Sandra Reemer
Barbara Alexandra "Sandra" Reemer (17 October 1950 – 6 June 2017) was an Indo-Dutch singer and television presenter. She represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest on three occasions, tying with Corry Brokken for most app ...
to form the Dutch Divas, who quickly established themselves as a popular live act, particularly with the Dutch gay community. Reemer left the group in 2005 and was replaced briefly by another Eurovision performer,
Justine Pelmelay, who remained with the group for a year; since then Marcha and MacNeal have continued as a duo.
In 2010 she still performs as a solo artist. Besides her performances she is also a regular presenter for the regional broadcasting company
RTV Oost
The Dutch public broadcasting system ( nl, Nederlands publieke omroepbestel) is a group of organizations that are responsible for public service television and radio broadcasting in the Netherlands. It is composed of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep ...
. In 1996, Marga announced the scores of the Dutch jury at 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 ...
staged in Oslo, Norway. In 2012, she recorded a new version of her Eurovision entry ''Rechtop in De Wind''
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
References
External links
*
*
1987 page at Dingadong.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcha
1956 births
Living people
Dutch women singers
Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the Netherlands
Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1987
Musicians from Overijssel
People from Lattrop