Tess Gaerthé (born 21 August 1991), better known as simply Tess, is a Dutch singer and former child star. Gaerthé rose to fame as the Dutch representative at the third

Junior Eurovision Song Contest The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (often shortened to JESC, Junior Eurovision or Junior EuroSong) is an international song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003. It is held in a diff ...

in 2005. Singing "

Stupid Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit. It may be innate, assumed or reactive. The word ''stupid'' comes from the Latin word ''stupere''. Stupid characters are often used for comedy in fictional stories. Walter B ...

", she finished in 7th place with 82 points, which remained the best result for the country until 2009.

Life and career

Tess was born in the VU Amsterdam Hospital on 21 August 1991, half an hour after her twin brother Joël. They enjoyed a musical and intercultural upbringing due to their numerous international

au-pair An au pair (; plural: au pairs) is a helper from a foreign country working for, and living as part of, a host family. Typically, au pairs take on a share of the family's responsibility for childcare as well as some housework, and receive a monet ...

s. In 2001, Gaerthé and her family relocate to Belgium after her mother opened an office 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 ...

. In 2005, Gaerthé, auditioned for the Dutch preselection of the

with a song she co-wrote with her mother, "Stupid". Eventually, she was appointed as the Dutch representative for the contest in

Hasselt Hasselt (, , ; la, Hasseletum, Hasselatum) is a Belgian city and municipality, and capital and largest city of the province of Limburg in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is known for its former branding as "the city of taste", as well as its ...

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 ...

. At the time she participated in the contest, Gaerthé lived in

Putte Putte () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality includes the towns of Putte, Beerzel, and the hamlets and . The town of Putte is around east of Mechelen. In 2021, Putte had a total population of 18,109 ...

, Antwerp. At the end of the voting, Tess finished in seventh position, the country's best performance in the contest at that time. After the contest, she released several additional singles, including the theme song for the children's television series ''Spetter'', "Mijn allerbeste vriend". Together with

Thomas Berge Thomas Berge, pseudonym of Chiel Thomas Ottink (born 25 January 1990) is a Dutch singer. Biography Thomas Berge was born in Enschede. He released his first single at the age of twelve. The album, ''Mijn Luchtballon'', sold 800,000 promotiona ...

, Gaerthé sang the Dutch version of the main duet of ''

High School Musical 2 ''High School Musical 2'' is a 2007 American musical television film written by Peter Barsocchini and directed by Kenny Ortega. The 70th Disney Channel Original Movie (DCOM), it is the sequel to ''High School Musical'' (2006) and the second insta ...

'', by Disney. Gaerthé's first album, ''Onweerstaanbaar'' was released on 6 March 2008 in Belgium and the Netherlands and was the final step of a her earlier singing career, as she had no desire to continue to stay a child star. As of 2018, Gaerthé works as a music licenser at the label Cloud 9 Music. In 2018, she studied International Music Management. In 2020, Gaerthé performed "Stupid" live on

NPO 3FM NPO 3FM is a Dutch rhythmic CHR radio station controlled by public broadcaster Netherlands Public Broadcasting, NPO. The vast majority of the songs played on-air are Rock music, rock, Alternative rock, alternative, Indie rock, indie and Pop mus ...

, marking the fifteenth anniversary of her song.

Discography

Albums

*2008: '' Onweerstaanbaar''

Singles

* 2005: "Stupid" * 2006: "First Kiss" * 2006: "Mijn allerbeste vriend" * 2007: "De stem van mijn hart" (featuring

) * 2008: "Little Pink Thing" * 2008: "Change"

References

External links

* * 1991 births Living people Dutch child actresses Dutch child singers Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the Netherlands Musicians from Amsterdam Dutch twins 21st-century Dutch singers 21st-century Dutch women singers {{Netherlands-singer-stub