Anneke Grönloh

Biography

Anneke Grönloh was a Dutch singer, born in Indonesia in the days that it was called Dutch East India. In december 1959 she won the talent show “Cabaret der onbekenden”. Her debut single, after the show, became “Ma, hij wil zo graag een zoen”. She had some small hits in the Netherlands and performed in Singapore and Malaysia. In 1962 she took part in the Knokke Cup, where she presented her song “Brandend zand”. This became her real breakthrough, having the #1 spot in the Dutch charts for no less than four months! The follow up, “Paradiso” was at the #1 spot for sixteen weeks. Also the songs “Soerabaja” and “Da doe ron ron” in 1963 became number 1 hits in the Netherlands. She also rose to fame in Germany, with German versions of her songs. In 1964, she had a couple of hits, but didn’t reach the #1 spot anymore. She represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest, more or less against the will of her record company. “Jij bent mijn leven” reached a 10th place in the ranking. She visited the theatres in the Netherlands together with Rudi Carell, opened for Cliff Richard and had several shows on Dutch tv. By the end of the year, she also made a tour through Indonesia. The success in the Dutch charts started to fade, but in Yugoslavia she had two #1 hits with songs, translated into Serbian. In 1969, she took part in the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest again. In 1972 she won the song festival of Menorca. 
Only in 1986 she recorded a new song, “Santo Domingo”. In 1997, Queen Beatrix made her officer in the order of Oranje-Nassau. 
Anneke Grönloh made her filming debut in 2007 in the movie “Ver van familie”. Her last performance was in 2017, because her health condition did not let her perform anymore.
Anneke Grönloh passed away on 14 september 2018.