Maribelle (born Marie Kwakman on 4 April 1960) is a Dutch singer, best known for her participation in the

1984 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1984, the 29th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following the country's victory at the with the song "Si la vie est cadeau" by Corinne Hermes. Organised by t ...

. In 1981, Maribelle performed two songs, "Marionette" and "Fantasie", in the Dutch Eurovision pre-selection, only to finish second and third, behind Linda Williams. She had better luck in 1984, when her two songs finished first and second, with "

Ik hou van jou The Netherlands was represented by Maribelle, with the song "Ik hou van jou", at the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Luxembourg City on 5 May. Maribelle was the winner of the Dutch national final for the contest, held on 14 Marc ...

" ("I Love You") edging out "Vanavond", and going forward as the Netherlands' representative to the 29th

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 ...

, held in

Luxembourg City Luxembourg ( lb, Lëtzebuerg; french: Luxembourg; german: Luxemburg), also known as Luxembourg City ( lb, Stad Lëtzebuerg, link=no or ; french: Ville de Luxembourg, link=no; german: Stadt Luxemburg, link=no or ), is the capital city of the Lu ...

on 5 May. Prior to the contest, "Ik hou van jou" had been fancied to do well so its final placing of 13th out of the 19 entries was very disappointing. (Although Maribelle had given a confident performance, there was considerable criticism afterwards of the unflattering outfit in which she had appeared on stage.) Despite its poor Eurovision performance, "Ik hou van jou" has gone on to be an enduring and popular song in the Dutch language market, having been covered successfully by

Gordon Heuckeroth Cornelis Willem "Gordon" Heuckeroth (; born 6 July 1968), known simply as Gordon, is a Dutch singer and television personality. Internationally, he is best known for his membership of the supergroup the Toppers, which represented the Netherlands ...

, Dana Winner,

Thomaz Thomaz may refer to: *Américo Thomaz (1894–1987), Portuguese admiral and politician *Thomaz (footballer) (born 1986), Brazilian footballer *Thomaz Bellucci (born 1987), Brazilian tennis player *Thomaz Koch (born 1945), Brazilian tennis player *T ...

and Roxeanne Hazes. Maribelle continues to record, and has placed several singles on the Dutch chart, most recently "Ik geef me over", a top 40 hit in October 2009.Dutch charts website
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References

External links

* (Dutch)

1984 page at Dingadong.nl
(Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maribelle 1960 births Living people Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the Netherlands Dutch women singers Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1984 People from Volendam Nationaal Songfestival contestants