Still remember the band BZN? Win tickets to see them in Nelspruit!
Click here to read more about this Dutch band and their South African tour.
All the BZN hits in one show!
Legendary Dutch band BZN will be singing all the hits which made them household names in South Africa in the eighties when they embark on their South African tour at the end of October. They’ll be criss-crossing across the country, taking their music to their fans, and will be live in Nelspruit on November 6, 2015.
Win!
Whiteriverpost.co.za is giving away three prizes to three readers in a lucky draw:
• 1 x VIP package for the show in Nelspruit (2 x tickets, “meet & greet” and signed album)
• 2 x tickets + signed album for the show in Nelspruit
• 2 tickets for the show in Nelspruit.
All you have to do ins complete the entry form with your name, surname, phone number and email address. The closing date is October 19, 2015. Winners will be contacted shortly after.
Read more about the Nelspruit show here: BZN legends once again to take South African stages by storm
According to Anny Schilder and Jan Keizer, lead singers of BZN, they can’t wait to perform in South Africa again. “South Africa has always been good to us,” says Anny. “We love the country and its people”.
It will be 40 years next year since BZN had their first major hit, “Mon Amour” and 40 years since Anny and Jan started singing together.
BZN on Noot vir Noot
Anny and Jan both grew up in a small Dutch town called Volendam. “Those days, every family in Volendam made music. So even when ‘Mon Amour’ became a hit, we knew the pressure was on. At any given time some other band from Volendam could hit the big time,” says Jan, an extremely modest and likeable guy. “We would go on a world tour and I would come back to Volendam and go to the butcher…and then I would have to wait my turn just like everyone else.”
This is partly the reason why BZN has managed to survive for so many years. They’re never too busy or too tired for their fans. “Without our fans we are nothing,” says Jan.
To make sure they reach all their South African fans this time around, Jan and Anny and a six-piece orchestra will be performing in towns such as Kimberley, Klerksdorp, Nelspruit, George, Bloemfontein and Paarl.
“Our fans told us last time they want to hear our hits. Well, that’s exactly what we’ll be giving them – a show jam-packed with all the BZN hits that topped the charts in South African in the eighties,” says Jan.
The song list include BZN classics such as “Yeppa”, “Tonight”, “Wheels on Fire”, “Le Legionnaire”, “Waltzing Maria” and of course, “Mon Amour”, the song that started it all.
“Can you believe it would be 40 years next year (2016) since we became an overnight success with ‘Mon Amour’?” asks Jan.
The two can’t help but smile when they talk about those early years. BZN was looking for a female singer and they held auditions. Anny, a friend of Jan’s sister, got the job. “We didn’t really like each other in the beginning,” says Anny. “But our voices sounded fantastic together,” says Jan. “Mon Amour” was Anny’s first song she sang with the band.
The song was recorded and at the Volendam Carnival, one of the highlights on the town calendar, one could hear the song in every pub and restaurant. Little did the band know that a well-known Dutch Radio celebrity attended the carnival. He loved the song and decided to add it to his “songs of the week” playlist on Radio Veronica, a regional radio station in the Netherlands.
Within a week the song went from the number ten spot to number one where it remained for five weeks.
This was the start of a remarkable career. BZN has had over 50 hits in the Dutch hit charts to date, and are the only music act to have had top 40 hit singles for 26 consecutive years (1973-1998). They recorded more than thirty albums, and received countless awards and accolades.
Band Zonder Naam has truly stood the test of time. As one journalist remarked: “They should now change their name to BZE (Band Zonder Einde).”
South Africa tour
• 24 October, Kimberley
• 25 October, Bloemfontein
• 28 October, Port-Elizabeth
• 29 October, East London
• 31 October, Paarl
• 1 November, George
• 3 November, Klerksdorp
• 4 November, Pretoria
• 6 November, Nelspruit
• 7 & 8 November, Johannesburg
Jan and Anny will be accompanied by their own six-member orchestra during their South African tour. Two popular South African TV presenters and singers, Nàdine and Gerrie Pretorius, will join them on stage for a couple of songs, including the song “First Kiss Goodnight”, which Gerrie and Anny recorded in 2007.
Tickets for BZN – The Greatest Hits Show are available from Computicket. (Pretoria show available from iTickets)
To Anny and Jan their upcoming tour to South Africa is a “celebration of life”.
Anny was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and they were forced to cancel their world tour, which included shows in South Africa.
“Everything changes when you hear such terrible news,” says Anny. It is then when you start to appreciate life all over again. “I wanted to live, to get better and most of all, I wanted to get back on stage,” says Anny.
The treatment was successful and once Anny was feeling stronger, the BZN team started planning their world tour.
“This tour means so much to me,” says Anny. “I now know what it feels like to be afraid, to almost lose everything you’ve been looking forward to. Life is a gift and I want to share my joy with our South African fans. I am healthy and happy and I’m so looking forward to doing the thing I love most: to sing.”
Jan agrees. He too had a serious health scare in 1999 when he undergone quadruple heart bypass surgery. “Afterwards you tend to appreciate life more,” says Jan. And, just like Anny, the thing he wanted most was to get back on stage and perform.
Even though the two of them have performed together for decades, the on-stage chemistry is still there between them. “One Dutch reporter was convinced for years that Anny and I were romantically involved. We never were, but when we perform together on stage, it sure looks like it,” says Jan.
Proudly brought in by Stars In SA – https://starsinsa.co.za/
