As revellers head to the Noorderslag festival, more artists are finding success with their native tongue – at home and abroad
The major stars in the Dutch
music scene have rarely worn their nationality on their sleeves. It is difficult to imagine No Limit by 2 Unlimited or the Vengaboys’ enduring eurodance track Boom Boom Boom Boom achieving quite the same success in the artists’ native language.
As with Nederpop, a genre of music that enjoyed its moment under the disco-lights in the 1960s and 1970s, the stars seeking international success have generally sung in English or dispensed with words altogether; Dutch was left to the folk singers. Dutch-born Eddie Van Halen, who moved to
California with his family as a child, was never likely to insist that his eponymous band sang in his mother tongue.