Esmée Denters (born 28 September 1988) is a Dutch singer and

YouTube celebrity A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influen ...

. Denters started promoting herself as a musician online in 2006, covering songs by artists including Justin Timberlake and

Natasha Bedingfield Natasha Anne Bedingfield (born 26 November 1981) is a British singer and songwriter. Bedingfield released her debut album, '' Unwritten'', in 2004, which contained primarily up-tempo pop songs and was influenced by R&B music. It enjoyed intern ...

. By mid-2008 she became one of the first music artists to exceed 100 million views on YouTube. Denters was signed by Timberlake as the first artist to his label Tennman Records. In May 2009, she released her debut studio album, ''

Outta Here ''Outta Here'' is the debut studio album by Dutch pop artist and songwriter Esmée Denters. It was released on Tennman Records in May and June 2009 in Europe, and was released in the UK on 11 January 2010. Production was handled mostly and ...

'', and toured the United States with Timberlake. After the label dropped her, Denters moved to London, where she competed in

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

's ''

The Voice UK ''The Voice UK'' is a British singing competition television series. Created by John de Mol, it premiered on BBC One during the spring television cycle on 24 March 2012. Based on the original '' The Voice of Holland'', and part of ''The Voice ...

''. In 2017, Denters released her EP ''These Days'', followed by the EP ''Past, Present, Future'' in 2020.

Early life

Denters was born in

Arnhem Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both ban ...

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

, The Netherlands. Denters lived in Westervoort next to Arnhem until she was fifteen, when her family moved to

Oosterbeek Oosterbeek is a village in the eastern part of Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Renkum in the province of Gelderland, about west of Arnhem. The oldest part of Oosterbeek is the Benedendorp (Lower Village), on the northern bank ...

. She graduated from high school in

in 2006 and subsequently attended the

HAN University of Applied Sciences The HAN University of Applied Sciences, mostly referred to as HAN, is one of the largest universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands. It offers bachelor's and master's degree programs to over 36,000 students. HAN is a knowledge institute f ...

where she was working towards a

Bachelor of Social Work A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

until she dropped out in her

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ar ...

in February 2007 to join Tennman Records.

Career

2006–2008: Early career

On 25 August 2006, Denters made a YouTube channel. She posted several videos of herself singing covers of other pop stars' songs. Denters traveled to the U.S. to write songs and record in the studio. There were plans for a reality show around Denters in the United States, which followed up the release of her debut album. She also sang a song that was written by

Kelly Rowland Kelendria Trene Rowland (born February 11, 1981) is an American singer, actress, and television personality. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as a member of Destiny's Child, one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. During the gr ...

of Destiny's Child. She then flew to Sweden for a few days to write songs and record. In 2008, Denters started her professional career after attracting the attention of Dutch media scouts and American pop singer Justin Timberlake. Timberlake went on to sign her as the first artist to his label Tennman Records. Timberlake served as an executive producer on her debut album, ''

''. She also appeared on TV shows like ''

Oprah Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...

''.

2009–2010:''Outta Here'' and collaborations

In April 2009, Denters confirmed on Dutch radio station

Radio 538 Radio 538 () is a Dutch commercial radio station that was founded in Hilversum, Netherlands in 1992. It is the second-most listened to radio station in the Netherlands. Radio 538 refers to the wavelength on which Radio Veronica used to broadcas ...

that her debut album would be released in the Netherlands on 22 May 2009, also confirming that the album is a mix of Pop and R&B with both ballads, and uptempo tracks. Her debut single, also the title song of the album, was released in the Netherlands on 14 April 2009 and in the UK on 15 August. ''Outta Here'' reached number five in the Netherlands and charted in Belgium, where it reached number 3 for five weeks on the Flemish Region Albums Chart. The album was released in the UK on 11 January 2010 and features her 2008 charity duet with Timberlake, "Follow My Lead" as an additional bonus song. The second single, " Admit It", only reached 28 in the Netherlands and 56 in the UK. In autumn 2009, Denters went on tour with Honor Society. The album's third single " Love Dealer" reached 12 and 68 in the Netherlands and UK respectively. Denters also worked on several collaborations during this time. She performed on tour with artists

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He gained fame for his songwriting abilities when he penned Mario's 2004 hit " Let Me Love You ...

, Enrique Iglesias and

N-Dubz N-Dubz are an English hip hop trio from Camden Town, London, consisting of cousins Dappy and Tulisa, and Fazer. After winning a MOBO Award for Best Newcomer in 2007, N-Dubz briefly signed to Polydor Records before joining All Around the Wor ...

. She lent her vocals to the German band

Stanfour Stanfour are a German rock band who formed in 2004. The band was founded on the German island of Föhr where the four core members live. Already prior to the band's formation, brothers Alexander and Konstantin Rethwisch spent years in Los Angeles ...

who featured Denters on their single "Life Without You", released on 25 May 2010. The music video for the single was postponed due to the April 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption. On 1 May, Denters and Stanfour flew to New York to record the video for "Life Without You". The official release of "Life Without You" in Germany was 28 May. The video leaked on the internet on 24 May. In the UK, she also accepted a collaboration with British rapper

Chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks may be classified either as ...

on his hit " Until You Were Gone", which entered the top three on UK charts. She received an

MTV Europe Music Award The MTV Europe Music Awards (originally named MTV European Music Awards, commonly abbreviated as MTV EMA) are awards presented by Paramount International Networks to honour artists and music in pop culture. It was originally conceived as an a ...

in 2009 and the

European Border Breakers Award The European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) was an annual prize awarded to recognise the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year. ...

in 2010 for ''Outta Love''.

2011–2014: Dismissal from ''Tennman Records''

Denters started working on new songs for her second studio album in January 2011. She worked with British DJ and producer

K-Gee Karl Clive Gordon, known by the stage name K-Gee, is a British DJ, producer, rapper and songwriter and former member of the Outlaw Posse. Gordon was brought up listening to reggae by his father and was inspired to become a DJ after listeni ...

and musician Ben Cullum on the album, which was to be titled ''Screaming Out Loud''. "City Lights" was the first single from the album. At the end of 2012, Dutch DJ and producer Erik Arbores and Denters collaborated for the new Dance4Life theme song called "dance4life (now dance)", released digitally on 23 November. They performed the song at the Dance4Life 2012 charity event in Ahoy, Rotterdam. Denters was dropped from Tennman Records that year. On 24 February 2014, Denters returned to the stage, performing new music at Showcase Live in London. She opened the show singing her first hit single "Outta Here" followed by three new original songs: "Cars and Airplanes", "If I Could I Would" and "Anything For The Money", along with a performance of Lorde's " Royals",

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

's "

Hold On, We're Going Home "Hold On, We're Going Home" is a song by Canadian rapper Drake, featuring the R&B duo Majid Jordan. The song was produced by Noah "40" Shebib, OVO Sound's Majid Jordan and Nineteen85, and it is the second single from his third studio album, ' ...

", and

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first re ...

's " Wake Me Up". On 24 September 2014, Denters released her first independent single "If I Could I Would" on iTunes and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

2015–present: ''The Voice UK'' & independent work

On 24 January 2015, Denters appeared on

's ''

'', selected to join

will.i.am William James Adams Jr. (born March 15, 1975), known professionally as will.i.am (pronounced "Will-I-am"), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is the founding and lead member of the musical group Black Eyed Peas. ...

's team for the next round. However, she was eliminated at the knockout stage. At the end of 2017, Denters worked with Shaun Reynolds and released a 5-song EP ''These Days'' on iTunes and

. In January 2018, Denters mentioned on Instagram that the second part of the EP would be released in May 2018. On 25 May 2018, Denters sang the lead single "Feeling Good" live on the Dutch TV show ''M''. One month later Denters headlined her own live show at the

Melkweg Melkweg (Dutch for "Milky Way") is a popular music venue and cultural centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is located on Lijnbaansgracht, near Leidseplein, a prime nightlife square of Amsterdam. It is housed in a former dairy and is divided int ...

in The Netherlands. Sylvia Aimee and MVTCHES were the opening acts. A second live show followed in March 2019 at The Borderline in London. In 2020, Denters released a 3-song EP titled ''Past, Present, Future''. The EP was created during the UK lockdown with Shaun Reynolds, who said they "managed to piece ttogether remotely from two opposite sides of the capital." The EP includes the tracks "Love Me The Same", "Ruins", and "Better Things", with each song depicting a different period of time in a romantic relationship.

Media

Appearances in the Dutch and international media.

Youtube

The uploaded Youtube-video's from Esmee Denters can be found below. A video appears on the list if it is a song, it reached more than 100.000 views on Youtube, is not an official released single, not part of a tv-show and can't be found on an album.

Discography

Tours

2007 * Justin Timberlake –

FutureSex/LoveShow The FutureSex/LoveShow was the third concert tour by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake. It showcased his second studio album, ''FutureSex/LoveSounds'' (2006). The tour grossed $127.8 million. It was the third highest-grossing concert ...

(opening act, Europe) 2009 * Enrique Iglesias – Greatest Hits tour (opening act, Europe) *

– Year of the Gentleman tour (opening act, Europe) * Honor Society – Fashionably Late tour (opening act, United States/Canada) * N-Dubz Christmas Party (opening act, UK) 2010 *

– Rise & Fall tour (special guest, Germany)

Awards

Notes and references

External links

*
Esmée Denters
Artist Discography
Esmée Denters
Esmée Denters {{DEFAULTSORT:Denters, Esmee 1988 births Living people People from Arnhem Dutch dance musicians Dutch singer-songwriters English-language singers from the Netherlands 21st-century Dutch singers Dutch YouTubers Female YouTubers 21st-century Dutch women singers MTV Europe Music Award winners Music YouTubers YouTube vloggers