Corry Brokken

Biography

Corry Brokken was a Dutch singer, born in Breda.She had her debut in 1952, when she sang the song “Apologize” on Dutch radio. In the years that followed, she gained fame with radio performances with various orchestras. In 1956 she won the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest and represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest with “Voorgoed voorbij”. The final breakthrough was a year later when she won the contest with the song “Net als toen”. In 1958 she participated again, singing “Heel de wereld. One year later she failed to win the national final. She did, however, release her debut album, “Corry’s bedtime story” in that year.
A huge success for La Brokken was “Milord” in 1960, with which she had a #1 hit in the Dutch charts for four months! The song was boycotted by various radio stations because of the text about a prostitute.
Corry performed in 1961 with ‘Snip en Snap’ in the Sleeswijk revue. She also hosted various television programs until 1972. In 1976 she also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest.
Meanwhile she also rose to fame in Germany. Hits like “Milord” and “La Mamma” were also translated into German. In 1966 she was asked to represent Germany Eurovision Song Contest, but Corry didn’t want to.
She also hosted several tv shows in Germany in the late 1960s. In the meantime, she released several albums in the Netherlands. However, her records were less and less successful. In 1974 she decided to take a completely different approach: she said goodbye to the showbusiness and started a law study. Corry Brokken started a career as a lawyer and later as a judge.
In 1996, after finishing her career as a judge, Corry Brokken made another comeback with a new CD, “Nooit gedacht”. She wrote her memoirs, a book that was released in 2000. A sequel to the memoir appeared in 2009. Corry Brokken lived a reclusive life in recent years before she passed away on 31 december 2016.