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Bobbejaan Schoepen

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Bobbejaan Schoepen (born Modest Schoepen, May 16 1925, Boom, Antwerp) is a Flemish entertainer, singer, guitarist, composer, actor, and founder of the Bobbejaanland amusement park in Belgium.

He is the first Belgian singer successfully to pursue an international career. Bobbejaan Schoepen also introduced American Country music recordings to the masses of West-Europe. Apart from British artists, he is probably the only European to have performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville (three performances with Roy Acuff in 1953). He is also well known for his highly accomplished professional and virtuoso whistling.

Schoepen started as a classically trained singer and guitarist, an artistic jack-of-all-trades and master of none, who would always be very hard to categorize.

At the beginning of his career, he was a popular singer with broad musical perspectives, renowned as a bohemian entertainer with a very typical sense of irony and tongue-in-cheeck assertiveness. (His stage name is derived from the South African song "Bobbejaan klim die berg".) His comprehensive and sometimes wittingly countercultural catalogue stretches from cabaret, sentimental songs and cinematic instrumentals, over chansons and country to absolutely crazy folk music. He sold about five million copies of the songs in this enormous repertoire (his musical repertoire includes more than 500 songs).

He was arrested by the Nazis during his debut in 1943 in Antwerp when he sang a South African song "Mamma, 'k wil 'n man hê!" ("No mom no, I don't want German man, cause I don't eat schweinefleisch"), which was interpreted as anti-German.

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[edit] Post WWII

In 1947, he met Jacques Kluger, a renowned Jewish manager that was looking for local talent. Right away he recognized a promising performer and asked Bobbejaan to entertain the American and Canadian troops in Frankfurt and Berlin. One of these floor shows happened to be attended by the American general and military governor Lucius D. Clay, who invited him straight away for more performances. These tours would influence his country repertoire and strongly stimulate his career.

His first record became a hit single in Belgium in 1948: De jodelende fluiter (The Yodeling Whistler). In 1949 he also entertained the Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian War with 127 performances within three months of his own show.

He enjoyed enormous popularity at the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1970s. In 1951 the Belgian jazz musician Toots Thielemans was a member of his band, and in January 1955 the Belgian singer Jacques Brel played in his show in the legendary concert hall Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.

He also did concert tours with Josephine Baker, Caterina Valente, Gilbert Bécaud, and performed in front of the British Queen Mother in 1958. The same year he recorded in New York for RCA Records with the legendary Steve Sholes. He also performed on The Ed Sullivan Show and once with country singer Red Foley in Springfield, Missouri. In 1974 country singer Tex Williams recorded his single Fire and Blisters.

In 1957, he was the second Belgian contestant to the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, tying for eighth place with Lys Assia with the whistle-song Straatdeuntje. The performance is memorable in featuring a whistling solo. Schoepen is also rumoured not to have known which song he was to perform at the Contest until he arrived, only rehearsing his entry once before performance.

In 1959 and 1960 Bobbejaan Schoepen covered Pub with no beer, originally by the Australian country singer Slim Dusty (1957, written by Gordon Parsons). The Dutch and German cover versions of the song became number-one hits (even evergreens) in Belgium, Austria and Germany. In 1961 he became one of the musical highlights of the Filmfestival in Berlin. A few years later Bobbejaan's evergreen Eerbied voor jouw grijze haren became an international hit, covered by the popular German singers Heino, Camillo Felgen and also James Last, with over three million copies sold. In France, Richard Anthony scored a big hit with his "Je me suis souvent demandé". Because of this song, Schoepen was honoured with an artisitic award in Paris in 1965.

In 1959 Bobbejaan Schoepen got weary of touring and decided to build his on music theater: after draining a 30 ha marsh he built a venue where he could perform as often as he liked. In 1961, the Bobbejaanland amusement park was born (his personal manager Jacques Kluger invented the name). In 1975 he and his wife Josée decided to build an attraction park around his theater. Within 40 years this domain became one of the top amusements parks in Europe, runned by him and his family.

During his career, Bobbejaan Schoepen performed in 5 films as an actor or singer. In 1999 the alternative rock band Dead Man Ray wrote a new soundtrack for the film At the Drop of A Head (alias De Ordonnans or Pub with no beer) and went on tour with the film in the Low Countries. The original movie from 1962 starred Schoepen; the original soundtrack was at that time immensely popular pop band Les Cousins (The Cousins).

The life of Schoepen is also a lucky bag of funny and colourful anecdotes. Once, he managed to buy the original Zorro's horse from guntumbler Casey Tibbs, but unfortunately the animal tread on an exposed cable and passed away. From his American friend Nudie Cohn, he acquired the peculiar white Pontiac Nudie Mobiles, skilfully decorated with American coins and showweapens. He had to count out ten thousand dollar for it, but looking back he would consider the white Pontiac as the most effective and talked-about element of al the attractions he featured. Probably just as charcteristic for his inventive spirit of enterprise, is the fact that Schoepen is the original deviser of the name Paribas, the French-Dutch banking group, later BNP-Paribas.

All the same, the life of Bobbejaan Schoepen was not without its difficulties: during wartime he was thrown into prison twice. Later, he lost his virtuoso whistle gift due to an operative intervention. Until recently he suffered from intestinal cancer, which gave rise to the idea to part with his life's work Bobbejaanland. Appearently there was no stopping him: in the winter of 2003, a major investement of 12 million dollar was made for a couple of world premières: the Typhoon (a roller coaster with a fourfold loop and a free fall) and the Sledge Hammer (a giant shuttle that reaches topspeeds of 110 km/h). But April 2004 the final decision to sell the park was taken, after a preparatory period of more than three years. With this decision, the last family concern in the sector of amusement parks in Belgium disappeared.

Bobbejaan Schoepen is currently working on a new CD release.

[edit] Quotes

  • "I have never been a child prodigy. When I think back to my childhood, I can not discern any sign of future success. My only real talent couldn't be found in any curriculum: whistling." (HUMO, 1964)
  • "In 1956 I was granted the biggest reward of my career: my wife, Josée Jongen." (1970)
  • "Bobbejaan Schoepen is a real artist, who managed to transform his jazzy country guitar-playing, his deep seraphic voice and his crazy sense of humour into a trademark and later into an amusement park." (Dead Man Ray, 1999)
  • "Happiness is the moment when one doesn't feel pain." (HUMO, 2005)

[edit] Rewards and nominations Bobbejaan Schoepen

  • Document for courage and self-immolation for the musical support of the Dutch troops in Indonesia, presented by General Baay, supreme commander of the Dutch troops in Eastern Java, 1949.
  • Best Flemish singer (Flemish Grammy Award, by NIR and Studio Gent, 15 March 1955)
  • Education Artistique, diplôme de Croix d'Honneur de Chevalier. Presented by the Académie Natonale Artistique Littéraire et Scientifique, on June 30th, 1965 in Paris (No 5177).
  • Platinum record for 30 years Flemmisch Hits, Telstar 1978.
  • 25 golden records.
  • Compagnion in the Order of the Crown, 9 April 1986, presented by the Ministry of the Flemmisch Community.
  • Sabam Prize-medal - Belgian Artistical Promotion, 19 January 1993.
  • Sabam Prize-medal - Belgian Artistical Promotion, 26 September 1995
  • Certificate Belgium, Order of Leopold II: Knight of the Order of Leopold II, 26 September 1995, presented by the Ministry of the Flemmisch Community.
  • Place of honour in the Radio 2 Hall of Fame, 2000.
  • "Ik heb eerbied voor jouw grijze haren" (nomination for the Radio2 Hall of Fame, 2000)
  • "Lichtjes aan de Schelde" (nomination for the Radio2 Hall of Fame, November 2005)

[edit] 5 Greatest hits (int.)

  • Ich hab Ehrfurcht vor schneeweißen Haaren (1959)
  • Je me suis souvent demandé (1965)
  • Ich steh an der Bar und habe kein Geld (1959) (Pub with no beer)
  • Lichtjes van de Schelde (1952, Belgium)
  • Ein Hauschen auf der Heide (1960)/Kili watch (1961)

[edit] Managers

[edit] Artist names

  • Belgium and The Netherlands: Bobbejaan Schoepen
  • Germany and Austria: Bobby Jaan, Bobbejaan
  • Denmark and Iceland: Bobby Jaan
  • France: Bobby Jaan, Bobby Jann, Bobbi-Jean
  • US: Bobby John

[edit] Filmography

  • Ah! t'Is zo fijn in België te leven (1950, Belgium)
  • Televisite (TV series 1955, Belgium)
  • The Eurovision Song Contest (1957, Germany)
  • At the Drop of a Head/De Ordonnans/Café zonder bier (1962, Belgium–England)
  • O sole mio (1960, Germany)
  • Davon träumen alle Mädchen (1961, Germany)
  • Bobbejaanland (film production ZDF—by Vladimir Sis, 1967, Studio Barrandov Prague)
  • Der Goldene Schuß— TV episode (as Bobbejaan) (Musical, 1969)

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

fr:Bobbejaan Schoepen nl:Bobbejaan Schoepen sv:Bobbejaan Schoepen

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