Greetje Kauffeld

Biography

Greetje Kauffeld is a Dutch jazz singer, born in Rotterdam. Her career as a singer started when she did an audition in 1956 for the orchestra The Skymasters. She became the new singer of this orchestra in 1957. She released her first record in the same year and she represented the Netherlands in the Song Contest in Venice. In 1958 she participated in the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. She repeated this in 1959 and 1960.  In 1961, she was chosen to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest with “Wat een dag”. After this contest, she became a popular schlager singer in Germany, her greatest success being “Wir Können Uns Nur Briefe Schreiben”. In 1965, she won the festival of Knokke.
In 1968 Greetje Kauffeld performed in various American tv shows, including Joey Bishop’s where she shares the stage with bass player Ray Brown and guitarist Herb Ellis. In 1973 she made recordings with the Diamond Five. Two years later, she was awarded best vocalist during the Nordring Festivals, something she repeated in 1980. Together with guitarist Peter Nieuwerf and saxophonist Ruud Brink (replaced by Jan Menu in 1988), the singer formed a permanent trio in 1986. Kauffeld won an Edison in 1987 and a Golden Heart, the cultural prize of the city of Rotterdam, in 1989. She started singing in Dutch again when she recorded an album with George Gershwin songs in 1996. Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion in 1999. The singer still performs. In 2007 a book about her, “Was Für Tage”, was released in Germany.