Shirma Rouse is a Dutch singer, who was a participant in '' The Voice of Holland,'' was named best backing singer in 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 ...

by ''The Eurovision Times'' in 2013 and was invited to the funeral of

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

due to the popularity of her tribute album to the artist.

Biography

Rouse born in

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

, but grew up on

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, so ...

. At the age of nineteen she moved to

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 ...

to pursue a degree in Chemistry; however she joined a choir and transferred to a degree programme in Jazz Vocals. In 2010 Rouse released an album of soul music called ''Chocolate Coated Dreams''. In 2012, a second CD was released, ''Shirma Rouse sings Aretha'', with which she did a theatre tour. In 2013, she accompanied Anouk to the

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

as a backing singer, where she was named best backing singer by ''The Eurovision Times.'' That same year, Rouse participated in ''The Voice of Holland''. In 2017, Rouse toured with The Soul of Spanish Harlem; in addition, she resumed her

tribute. After the death of Franklin in 2018, Rouse was invited to attend the funeral. Novelist Herman Brusselsmans, in his 2021 work, described the fatphobic comments that he subjected Rouse to, and the public backlash he received as a result. In 2021 she published a cookery book in Dutch entitled ''Shirma's Soul Kitchen.''

Discography

Albums

* ''Chocolate Coated Dreams'' (Coast to Coast, 2010) * ''Sings Aretha'' (Stemra, 2012) * ''Dedicated to You'' (Challenge Records, 2012) * ''Shout It Out Loud'' (Play It Again Sam, 2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rouse, Shirma Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Sint Eustatius people Dutch women singers Dutch gospel singers People from Rotterdam