Levenslied (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, literally "life song" or "song about life") is a sentimental Dutch-language subgenre of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fu ...

. ''Levenslied'' lyrics can be sweet or bitter, light and sentimental, but also reflective and dark, about subjects such as love, misery and far-away, sunny, exotic holiday places. The darker, more sentimental songs are also known as "smartlap" (literally: "grief cloth"). The levenslied is related to the ''

chanson A (, , french: chanson française, link=no, ; ) is generally any lyric-driven French song, though it most often refers to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music. The genre had origins in the monophonic so ...

'' though for a lower-class audience, like the schlager. A typical levenslied has catchy, simple rhythms and melodies and is built up in

couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

and refrains. Traditional musical instruments in levenslied music are the

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a ree ...

and the

barrel organ A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the sam ...

. Modern levenslied artists also use

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

s. The songs are usually in

but also

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. Two cities in the Netherlands,

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

and

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, have annual Levenslied festivals.

Artists

Notable Dutch levenslied singers: *

Willy Alberti Willy Alberti (born Carel Verbrugge; 14 October 1926 – 18 February 1985) was a Dutch singer, who sang in Dutch and Italian. He was also an actor and a radio and TV personality. Alberti was born in Amsterdam as the third of eight children to Ja ...

Willeke Alberti Willeke Alberti (born 3 February 1945) (real name: Willy Albertina Verbrugge) is a Dutch singer and actress, the daughter of entertainer and singer Willy Alberti (1926–1985) and Hendrika Geertruida Kuiper (1921–2011). Biography Willeke Albe ...

Frans Bauer François (Frans) Bauer (born 30 December 1973 in Roosendaal as François van Dooren) is a Dutch singer of "levenslied" (Dutch Schlager). Biography Frans Bauer was born as François van Dooren, after his mother Wies van Dooren who wasn't marri ...

* Peter Blanker * Renée de Haan *

André Hazes André Gerardus Hazes (30 June 1951 - 23 September 2004) was a Dutch singer and actor. As an accomplished levenslied singer, Hazes recorded 36 studio and live albums, and 55 singles prior to his death in 2004. His music is still well-known in th ...

Stef Bos Steven "Stef" Bos (born 12 July 1961 in Veenendaal) is a Dutch singer who has been living in Cape Town, South Africa. He sings in Dutch (and occasionally in Afrikaans), and has been successful in Belgium, the Netherlands and South Africa ever s ...

Johnny Jordaan Johnny Jordaan was the pseudonym for Johannes Hendricus van Musscher (7 February 1924 – 8 January 1989), a Dutch singer of popular music, in particular the genre known as ''levenslied'', a Dutch variety of the French ''chanson''. He was well kn ...

Pierre Kartner Petrus Antonius Laurentius Kartner (11 April 1935 – 8 November 2022) was a Dutch musician, singer-songwriter and record producer who performed under the stage name Vader Abraham (''Father Abraham''). He wrote around 1600 songs. Early life an ...

Tante Leen Tante is the French, Dutch (Nederland), German, Danish, and Yiddish word for aunt (female sibling of a parent) ''Tante'' may also refer to: * A novel by Anne Douglas Sedgwick, upon which the film '' The Impossible Woman'' is based * Tante Leen ( ...

Imca Marina IMCA may refer to: * International Marine Contractors Association, a trade association for offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies * International Management Centres Association, an unaccredited institution of higher education based ...

Manke Nelis Manke Nelis (born Cornelis Pieters; 1919-1993) was a Dutch singer in the levenslied genre. Career Manke Nelis was born in Groenlo on 16 December 1919 and began his musical career as a bass player, often accompanying his brother-in-law, accordionis ...

Dries Roelvink Dries Roelvink (born 1 January 1959 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch singer of the '' Levenslied'' genre. He was born in the Jordaan and was raised in the folkish tradition of the ''Jordaanlied'' ( en, Jordaan song). In 2007 he tried to perform at the R ...

Sieneke Sieneke Ashley Kristel Baum-Peeters (born 1 April 1992) is a Dutch singer. She performed the Dutch entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 semi-final. Sieneke released an album with six covers of songs from the 1980s, called ''It's My Dream'' ...

* Jan Smit *

Zangeres Zonder Naam Maria (Mary) Servaes-Beij (; Leiden, 5 August 1919 – Horn, Netherlands, 23 October 1998) was a Dutch levenslied singer. She performed under the stage name Zangeres Zonder Naam (English: Singer without a name). She recorded almost 600 songs over ...

Notable Flemish levenslied singers: *

Eddy Wally Eduard Van De Walle (12 July 1932 – 6 February 2016), known by his stage name Eddy Wally, was a Belgian schlager singer from Zelzate, East Flanders, and the once self-proclaimed "Voice of Europe". As a crooner and showman, Eddy Wally toured ...

* Laura Lynn * Will Tura

References

{{Reflist Contemporary music Dutch styles of music