Maria Petronella "Ria" Brieffies (23 February 1957 – 20 July 2009) was a Dutch singer, best known as a member of 1980s

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 ...

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 ...

Life

After leaving school, Brieffies trained as a medical assistant. In her spare time she sang in various bands, including the VIPs. In 1979 she joined the newly formed girl group

, who went on to become one of the most popular groups of the 1980s in the Netherlands. The band also enjoyed some success in Germany and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. The single "Love Me Just a Little Bit More", featuring Brieffies on lead vocals, topped the Dutch singles chart for one week in 1984.

Solo career

Brieffies was generally regarded as Dolly Dots' most accomplished singer. After the group split up in 1988, she continued her career as a solo singer. In 1989 she recorded "Love Always Finds a Reason", a duet with American singer

Glenn Medeiros Glenn Alan Medeiros (born June 24, 1970) is an American former musician, singer, and songwriter who achieved chart success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is best known on the national and international music scene for his 1987 global s ...

which reached the Dutch top 20. She later performed with her own

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

group, the Ria Brieffies Kwintet. In the 1990s Brieffies retired from the music industry and became a qualified

manicurist A manicurist or nail technician is a person whose occupation is to style and shape a person's nails. This is achieved using a combination of decorating nails with coloured varnish, transfers, gems or glitter. Basic treatments include manicures a ...

/ pedicurist, before reuniting with the Dolly Dots in 2007 for a comeback tour which included three concerts to sell-out audiences of 10,000 at the Ahoy Arena 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 ...

Illness and death

Ria Brieffies was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2008, and died on 20 July 2009, aged 52.Obituary (in Dutch)
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brieffies, Ria 1957 births 2009 deaths People from Stede Broec Deaths from lung cancer in the Netherlands Dutch pop singers 20th-century Dutch women singers