Leeft die man nog dan, vraagt u zich gelijk af. Ja, wees gerust, Pierre Kartner leeft nog. Hij is 74 jaar en heeft wat kwaaltjes maar laat zich daardoor niet weerhouden om de Nederlandse inzending voor het Eurovisie songfestival van 2010 te schrijven. Te schrijven?… te componeren zeg maar. En, moet u maar denken, Beethoven was ook compleet doof toen hij zijn negende symphonie componeerde.
Weet u het nog? Pierre Kartner maakte in 1977 een liedje, waarvan na veel soebatten 1000 plaatjes werden gedrukt. Nu zijn er wereldwijd 30 miljoen exemplaren van zijn smurfenlied verkocht. Kortom: Nederland gaat ze daar in Oslo een smurfie laten ruiken.

Pierre Kartner to write Dutch entry… in Dutch!

Dutch composer Pierre Kartner, also known as Father Abraham, has been asked to write and compose the Dutch entry for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Broadcaster TROS asked the 74-year old composer, internationally most known as the creator and singer of The Smurfs tune, to write a song in Dutch.
Peter Kuipers, Director General of TROS, says: “We are proud that he accepted the invitation right away. He is a great composer, maybe the biggest of our country.” Kartner was awarded as such by the Dutch Top 40 association.
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In 1977, Kartner was asked to write a promotional song for an animated movie, which turned out to be about The Smurfs. The record company pressed 1,000 copies, since they were unsure about the success of the single. However, they were all sold within one day at a Schlager festival. After a repress, 400,000 singles where sold in a short period. A full Smurfs album (LP) was then created, which also climbed the charts, with 500,000 sold copies. People in other countries also started to notice the catchy tune, and it was released in several countries, in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Japanese, all sung by Kartner himself. He scored a number one hit in 16 countries. Altogether, his ‘Smurf’ works have about 30 million sold copies (source: Wikipedia).

Pierre Kartner himself is honoured: “It is the biggest task I got in years. I am honoured to be invited for this. About the fact that it will be a song in Dutch, I can say: Finally we shall sing as we speak again!”

It is not the first time Kartner writes the Dutch Eurovision Song Contest entry. In 1973, he wrote De Oude Muzikant, which brought singer Ben Cramer a 14th position.

The remaining question now is: Who will perform the Dutch entry? More details about the Nationaal Songfestival 2010, which will take place on 31 January and 7 February, will be announced shortly.

TROS also confirmed the commentators for the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. Cornald Maas, who has been the Dutch commentator since 2004 (until 2005 with the late Willem van Beusekom) will be joined by radio DJ Daniel Dekker.

Songfestival.nl

This entry was posted on zondag, november 29th, 2009 at 2:03 am and is filed under Historie, JdeW, Muziek, Gezondheid, World on the Dutch, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.