Jazz, blues and nostalgia. Corry Brokken (1932-2016).
She was one of the Great Dutch Singers. Of course especially known because of her winning Eurovision Song Contest (the edition of 1957), but besides that, she recorded a number of beautiful melancholic songs. Quite a lot of numbers with their origin in France, but also the better song material of Gerard Cox, Jules de Corte, Toon Hermans, Ernst van Altena, Bertolt Brecht, Irving Berlin. Because she was married with producer René Sleeswijk, she was the star in big shows, also beyond the Dutch borders. Besides hits like ‘Milord’ (the prostitute song which caused a big riot), she also worked on a splendid oeuvre of sensitive chansons. Fairly suddenly she quit the showbusiness, went to studie law, became a lawyer and later on a judge. Twenty years later she carefully made a comeback with a new album and some theatre productions. In today’s Palace of Nostalgia a small tribute for Corry Brokken with an hour filled with everlasting repetory like the begging ‘Ga niet weg’ (Don’t go), ‘Er rest mij niets’ (I have nothing left) (the translation of ‘Et maintenant’), the sensual ‘Blijf nog even bij me’ (Stay a while with me), the sharp ‘Hou je van hem?’ (Do you love him?) about a woman who loses her husband to another, the melancholic ‘Hoe je handen streelden’ (How your hands caressed) and of course the colourful ‘La Mamma’.
