Lennaert Herman Nijgh (January 29, 1945 in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

– November 28, 2002 in Haarlem) was a Dutch

lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...

. Nijgh was most commonly known as the lyricist for

Boudewijn de Groot Frank Boudewijn de Groot (; born 20 May 1944) is a Dutch singer-songwriter, known for "'' Welterusten mijnheer de president''" (1966). Biography Youth Boudewijn de Groot was born in wartime occupied Dutch East Indies in 1944 in a Japanese concen ...

Biography

Nijgh was an only child and grew up in

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Western Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. In 2021, it had a population of 27,545. Located just south of the city of Haarlem on the border with South Holland, it is one of the richest ...

. He went to the Coornhert Lyceum in Haarlem, together with his childhood friend Boudewijn de Groot. After two years Nijgh left the school, claiming that he was thrown out. He continued his education at the Kennemer Lyceum in

Overveen Overveen is a village in North Holland in the Netherlands, in the municipality of Bloemendaal. Overveen lies on the eastern fringe of the North Sea dunes. To the east it borders the built-up areas of Haarlem. A few kilometres to the west of the to ...

. In the meantime, he stayed friends with De Groot. He then went to the

Netherlands Film Academy The Netherlands Film Academy () (NFA) was founded in 1958. The academy is the only recognised institute in the Netherlands that offers training to prepare for the work in the various crew disciplines. Specialisation is possible in fiction direc ...

, but never graduated. Nijgh's breakthrough started when the record label Philips published the single ''Een meisje van 16'', which was an adaptation of

Charles Aznavour Charles Aznavour ( ; ; ; born Shahnur Vaghinak Aznavourian; 22 May 1924 – 1 October 2018) was a Armenians in France, French singer and songwriter of Armenian descent. Aznavour was known for his distinctive vibrato tenor voice: clear and ringi ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

''Une enfant (de seize ans)'', and was sung by Boudewijn de Groot. Nijgh was coached by

Ernst van Altena Ernst Rudolf van Altena (11 December 193315 June 1999) was a Dutch poet, writer and translator. He was best known for his translations of chansons by Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian ...

, who had previously translated works by

Jacques Brel Jacques Romain Georges Brel (; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed theatrical songs. He generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, but later throughout the world ...

. In 1968, Nijgh and De Groot temporarily stopped working together. However, in 1973, the two started collaborating again. Nijgh married three times, but never had any children. His first marriage was in 1969, with Dutch singer Astrid Nijgh (née De Backer). The couple divorced halfway through the seventies, but continued working together professionally. Nijgh married two more times after that. Nijgh owned a ship named De Jonge Jacob (The Young Jacob), that he bought from a fisherman from

Urk Urk (; ; ) is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. Urk is first mentioned in historical records dating to the 10th century, when it was still an island in the Almere, an inland sea that would become par ...

in 1969. Nijgh was a frequent visitor of Urk during his life. He used his ship to sail to England every year. His neighbour was

Mart Smeets Jan Marten “Mart” Smeets (born 11 January 1947, in Arnhem) is a Dutch radio and television personality, writer, and columnist. Television Mart Smeets is a long-time sports presenter and commentator with the Dutch public broadcaster NOS. He i ...

and they always greeted one another with the line "Dag meneer van de sport/kunst" (Hello sir of the sports/arts). Nijgh's parents passed away in 2000, after which he wrote melancholy

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

for a while. Nijgh died on November 28, 2002, of

gastrointestinal bleeding Gastrointestinal bleeding (GI bleed), also called gastrointestinal hemorrhage (GIB), is all forms of bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, from the mouth to the rectum. When there is significant blood loss over a short time, symptoms may includ ...

. He was hospitalized at that time because of

kidney stones Kidney stone disease (known as nephrolithiasis, renal calculus disease, or urolithiasis) is a crystallopathy and occurs when there are too many minerals in the urine and not enough liquid or hydration. This imbalance causes tiny pieces of cr ...

Work

Type of work

Nijgh worked with many older styles in his music, such as the rederijkersballad, the refrain and the

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

. Nijgh chose mostly timeless themes for his songs, such as prostitution, love and

peace Peace is a state of harmony in the absence of hostility and violence, and everything that discusses achieving human welfare through justice and peaceful conditions. In a societal sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (suc ...

, but also wrote about current events, such as the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. He also made use of cultural figures such as:

Jeroen Bosch Hieronymus Bosch (; ; born Jheronimus van Aken ; – 9 August 1516) was a Dutch painter from Brabant. He is one of the most notable representatives of the Early Netherlandish painting school. His work, generally oil on oak wood, mainly c ...

Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch playwright, poet, literary translator and writer. He is generally regarded as the greatest writer in the Dutch-language literature, Dutch language as well as an important f ...

, Reve,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a c ...

Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...

Fellini Federico Fellini (; 20 January 1920 – 31 October 1993) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and ...

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

and

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...

. His educational background was visible in his use of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

and

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

themes.

Collaboration with Boudewijn de Groot

The first collaboration of Nijgh and De Groot was in an

8mm film 8 mm film is a Cine film, motion picture film format in which the film strip is wide. It exists in two main versions – the original standard 8 mm film, also known as regular 8 mm, and Super 8 film, Super 8. Although both s ...

that Nijgh made, in which De Groot sang two songs. Ed Lautenslager was impressed by the songs and put Nijgh and De Groot in contact with the record label

Phonogram Phonogram may refer to: * A sound recording – see Geneva Phonograms Convention * ''Phonogram'' (comics), a comic book by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie * Phonogram (linguistics), a grapheme which represents a phoneme or a combination of phon ...

. De Groot became famous in the sixties for his

protest songs A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for protest and social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. ...

, of which the lyrics were written by Nijgh. Their first

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization i ...

was "Een meisje van 16". The second, " Welterusten mijnheer de president'", made De Groot famous as a protest singer. Near the ending of the sixties, De Groot felt that Nijgh's lyrics were becoming less fitting for his

image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...

. Before their split in 1968, the duo had some more big hits, such as "Het Land van Maas en Waal'" (with the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

"Testament") and "Prikkebeen". In 1973 Nijgh and De Groot started working together again, with the LP ''Hoe sterk is de eenzame fietser''. The album became a huge success. At the start of the nineties, Nijgh and De Groot lived together for a while. De Groot ended up marrying Nijgh's second wife in 1995. Nijgh also wrote songs for De Groot's son –

Marcel de Groot Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian ...

Collaboration with different artists

Nijgh didn't write lyrics exclusively for De Groot. He also wrote for several other famous Dutch singers, such as: Astrid Nijgh (his first wife), Jenny Arean,

Flairck Flairck was a Dutch musical ensemble formed in 1978 by guitar virtuoso Erik Visser.Eelco SchildeFolk World, Old World with New Sound – Dutch folk band Flairck discovers new ground Folkworld.de. Retrieved on 2013-07-23. and multi-instrumentali ...

, Jasperina de Jong,

Liesbeth List Elisabeth Dorathea "Liesbeth" List (born Driessen; December 12, 1941 – March 25, 2020) was a Dutch singer. She became popular during the 1960s and frequently collaborated with Ramses Shaffy. She also sang Jacques Brel's chansons in Dutch tran ...

and

Ramses Shaffy Ramses Shaffy (29 August 1933 – 1 December 2009) was a Dutch-French singer and actor who became popular during the 1960s. His most famous songs include "Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder", "We zullen doorgaan", "Pastorale", "Samm ...

, Elly Nieman,

Rob de Nijs Rob de Nijs (26 December 1942 – 16 March 2025) was a Dutch singer and actor. Life and career De Nijs, supported by The Lords, won a talent contest in 1962 and released the first single, " Ritme van de Regen" the same year, which is a great ...

and

Cobi Schreijer Cobi or COBI may refer to: People * Cobi (musician) (Jacob Michael Schmidt, born 1986), an American musician * Cobi Crispin (born 1988), an Australian wheelchair basketball player * Cobi Hamilton (born 1990), an American football player * Cobi Jo ...

. Nijgh also translated lyrics of foreign artists into Dutch, such as

chansons A (, ; , ) is generally any lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of French pop music which e ...

and

Musicals

Nijgh wrote several musicals. To honour the 700-year anniversary of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in 1975, Nijgh wrote '' De engel van Amsterdam'', an adaptation of Vondel's play, ''Gijsbrecht van Aemstel''. In 1985, he wrote the

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

''Ik, Jan Cremer'', which flopped. Nijgh also translated musicals, such as the American musical ''

Salvation Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

''. Nijgh worked on the Annie M.G. Schmidt production ''Met Man En Muis''.

Other works

Nijgh wrote for almost his entire life, except for times where he suffered from

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

. He started by writing columns in the newspaper of the ''Coornhert Lyceum''. He also wrote columns in the ''

Haarlems Dagblad The ''Haarlems Dagblad'' is a regional newspaper in Haarlem, Netherlands. It claims to be the oldest newspaper in the world still in printed circulation, although it was forced to merge with another Haarlem-based newspaper during the German occ ...

'' using the pseudonym Zeepbel. He wrote several books (including a novel named ''Tobia''). Three years before his death Nijgh wrote a book named ''Met Open Mond'', in which he described the history of ''Van der Pigge'', a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

in Haarlem that still sells the book.

Awards during life

Golden Harp The Golden Harp ''(Dutch (language), Dutch: Gouden Harp)'' is awarded annually to Dutch people, Dutch musicians for their entire oeuvre. Golden Harps have been awarded 42 times. 149 different persons or (musical) groups have had the honour of rece ...

1970 of Stichting Conamus * Literaire Cultuurprijs (Prize for Literary Culture) of Hilversum 1974 * In 1999 Nijgh and De Groot were knighted in the

Order of the Netherlands Lion The Order of the Netherlands Lion, also known as the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands (, ) is a Dutch honours system, Dutch order of chivalry founded by William I of the Netherlands on 29 September 1815. The Order of the Netherlands Lion wa ...

After death

In 2005, a sculpture in honour of Nijgh was revealed on the Oude Groenmarkt in Haarlem. The sculpture, consisting of the letters A and Z was designed by

Marinus Boezem Marinus Lambertus van den Boezem (born 28 January 1934) is a Dutch artist. He is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers, Ger van Elk and Jan Dibbets, Boezem is seen as one of the main rep ...

. According to Boezem, the first and last letters of the

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

symbolize the material that writers and poets use to create their art. In November 2007 the biography ''Testament'', about Nijgh's life, written by Peter Voskuil, was published. In 2014, Buma created the Lennaert Nijgh Prize for best lyricist. The ''Lennaert Nijghpad'' in Haarlem was named after him. Nijgh's written testimony is stored in the Letterkundig Museum in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. In 2013 fifteen unknown texts were discovered. De Groot did not want to use them, instead, making them available to

Frank Boeijen Franciscus Johannes Maria (Frank) Boeijen (born 27 November 1957 in Nijmegen) is a Dutch singer and guitarist. His best known songs are ''Kronenburg Park (Ga die Wereld Uit)'', about a sex worker; ''Zwart Wit'', about the racially motivated murd ...

and

Han Kooreneef Han may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Han", a fifth season episode of ''The West Wing'' * Han (musician), born Han Ji-sung, a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper, and record producer, member of Stray Kids * Han Lue, a character ...

for a theater show about Nijgh's life, in which Jim de Groot, Izaline Calister and Sjors van der Panne will perform.

Music

* ''Het mooiste van Lennaert Nijgh'' (CD) Universal 9807466, 2003. Lyrics by Nijgh, music by

De Dijk De Dijk (English: The Dike) were a Dutch rock band existing from 1981 to 2022. The band were named after Zeedijk, a street in their hometown Amsterdam. Their music can be described as a mixture of soul, blues and rock 'n roll, with lyrics su ...

Joost Nuissl Joost () was an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). During 2007–2008 Joost used peer-to-peer TV (P2PTV) technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in la ...

, Boudewijn and

Herman van Veen Hermannus Jantinus van Veen (born 14 March 1945) is a Dutch stage performer, actor, author, singer-songwriter and musician. He worked with accompanists Laurens van Rooyen and Erik van der Wurff, both of whom were pianists and composers. In ...

, Astrid Nijgh and

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

Films

* Feestje Bouwen 1962 * De Aanslag 1963, "paasvakantie" * Illusie 1964 * Elsje in Wonderland 1966? * Vox Humama 1966 * Een Vreemde Vogel (1967) with Boudewijn de Groot, Martine Bijl,

Jan Blokker Jan Andries Blokker Sr. (27 May 1927 – 6 July 2010) was a Dutch journalist, columnist, publicist, writer, and amateur historian. In The Netherlands, Blokker was best known for his columns in ''De Volkskrant'', which he wrote between 1968 and 2 ...

and

. * Een tip van de sluier 1979 * Lieve jongens 1980

Literature

* ''Voor de overlevenden en andere liedjes'' (1966) * ''Tobia, of De ontdekking van het masturbariaat'' (1971) – 2e druk 1991: * ''De dynastie der kleine luyden'' (1974) – * ''Tachtig teksten'' (1975) – * ''Journaal van Bontekoe'' (translation) (1989) – (available through DBNL) * ''Stad van hout: columns uit Haarlems Dagblad, 1986–1989'' (1989) — * ''Moord en doodslag: twaalf beroemde Nederlandse moordzaken'' (1990) — * ''Tekst en uitleg: liedteksten 1964–1990'' (1991) — * ''Haarlem bestaat niet'' (1996) – * ''Met open mond. 150 jaar Drogisterij A.J. van der Pigge'' (1999) – * ''Ik doe wat ik doe'' oek + CD(2000) –

Translations

* Many song lyrics and several musicals. * Mijn naam is Asjer Lev, book by

Chaim Potok Chaim Potok (February 17, 1929 – July 23, 2002) was an American author, novelist, playwright, editor and rabbi. Of the more than a dozen novels he authored, his first book '' The Chosen'' (1967) was listed on ''The New York Times'' Best ...

, 1974

After death

* ''Nog even en ik zie de hemel weer'' (2003) – * ''Katten Columns'' (2004) * ''Kerstvertellingen'' (2004)

About Nijgh

* Margreet Pop: ''Lennaert Nijgh verbeeld. Hommage aan een echte Haarlemmer''. Haarlem 2005 — * Peter Voskuil: ''Testament. Leven en werk van Lennaert Nijgh''. Kats, 2007. (Biografie) —

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nijgh, Lennaert 1945 births 2002 deaths Dutch columnists Dutch male songwriters Dutch songwriters Writers from Haarlem 20th-century Dutch poets