René Klijn (

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, 8 September 1962 –

5 September 1993) was a Dutch singer and model. He became famous in 1992 for discussing the fact that he was an

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

patient in a controversial, but critically awarded episode of

Paul de Leeuw Paul Henri de Leeuw (born 26 March 1962) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. He often came into publicity ...

's talk show ''De Schreeuw van De Leeuw''. In his final life year he scored a number one hit with the song "

Mr. Blue "Mr. Blue" is a popular song written by DeWayne Blackwell that was a hit for the Fleetwoods, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in November 1959, giving the group its second chart-topping hit of the year. Roy Lanh ...

Biography

He was a member of the boyband Bam-to-Bam-Bam. In the early 1990s he was diagnosed with

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

, which he revealed to viewers in an episode of ''De Schreeuw van de Leeuw'' starring host

, broadcast on 28 November 1992. The episode was controversial because De Leeuw took the liberty to crack jokes about Klijn's illness, but at the same time it took away a lot of taboos and tension. Klijn was in charge of how the episode was supposed to look and invited friends and family members to come and speak, but also his medics. At the end of the episode they sang a duet, "Mr. Blue", a cover of the band Yazoo, which was also released as a single. It became a number one-hit in the Netherlands and the money was donated to the AIDS foundation. The episode itself won a Bronze Rose d'Or in

Montreux Montreux (, ; ; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, Swiss municipality and List of towns in Switzerland, town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Swiss Alps, Alps. It belongs to the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut (district), Riviera-Pays ...

. He died on 5 September 1993 in The Hague from his disease. His partner Maarten took his ashes with him on a trip to the United States, where he scattered the ashes from a boat, de Leeuw was attending this moment, which was filmed on camera.

References

1962 births 1993 deaths Dutch male models Dutch people of Indonesian descent Musicians from The Hague 20th-century Dutch male singers AIDS-related deaths in the Netherlands {{Netherlands-singer-stub