Julius Theodoor Hugo Uiterloo (December 13, 1934 – November 15, 1975), better known by his stage-name Lieve Hugo and his nickname Iko, was a

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

se singer. He was one of the pioneers of the

kaseko Kaseko is a musical genre from Suriname. It is a fusion of numerous popular and folk styles derived from Africa, Europe and the Americas. The genre is rhythmically complex, with percussion instruments including skratji (a very large bass drum) ...

-genre; hence his other nickname ''King of Kaseko''.

Biography

Washboard Orchestra

Lieve Hugo sang in a choir and played drums and percussion in a variety of bands with or without other retired boxers. In 1967 he joined Washboard Orchestra; in this band, who more or less invented kaseko, he was both a drummer and a singer. A mutated version headlined the 1970 Holland Festival at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and got the crowd on their dancing feet. Health-reasons forced him to leave Washboard Orchestra and subsequently put down the drumsticks too.Muziekencyclopedie
Lieve Hugo
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Solo albums

Now living in the

Bijlmermeer The Bijlmermeer (), or colloquially the Bijlmer (), is a neighborhood in the Amsterdam-Zuidoost borough ( Dutch: ''stadsdeel'') in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The other neighborhoods in Amsterdam-Zuidoost are Gaasperdam, Bullewijk, Venserpolder and ...

-area 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 ...

, Lieve Hugo signed to EMI and released his debut solo-album in 1974. '' Lieve Hugo: King of Kaseko'' became one of the biggest-selling albums in Surinamese music. Lieve Hugo and his backing-band The Happy Boys toured extensively through the Netherlands, Belgium and South America. 1975 was the year that Suriname gained independence; Lieve Hugo chronicled the subject on his second album '' Wan Pipel'' (as in ''one people, one nation''), but didn't live to see the moment. During a performance at Club Sosa in Amsterdam, Lieve Hugo suffered a heart-attack; he died on November 15, 1975, ten days before the Independence Day-ceremony for which he was scheduled to play. His body was flown back to Suriname and buried at Mariusrust on November 23.

Happy Boys

The Happy Boys continued as a band with several lead vocalists, including Lieve Hugo's cousin Edgar Burgos. They released two albums in 1977 and 1978; debut album ''Akoeba'' included the tribute-song ''Memoria Foe Iko'' (on the melody of '' Historia de amor''). After the break-up in 1980, Burgos and four other Happy Boys formed the original line-up of Trafassi; they took Lieve Hugo's unfulfilled ambitions to further heights and became one of the leading live-acts in the Netherlands.

Revival and tribute-concert

In 2008, the Netherlands appeared to be ready for a Lieve Hugo-revival. The

Metropole Orchestra The Metropole Orkest () is a jazz and pop orchestra based in the Netherlands, and is the largest full-time ensemble of its kind in the world. A hybrid orchestra, it combines jazz, big band and classical symphony orchestra styles. Comprising betw ...

paid tribute to the King of Kaseko at the

Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls: * Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands * Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium * Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands {{disambiguation Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...

backing up artists such as

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 ...

, Oscar Harris,

Re-Play Re-Play is a Dutch R&B group from Rotterdam. The group is composed of singers Alwin Burke, Mark Dakriet, Henk Waarde and Samuel de Wit. In the Netherlands they scored hits like ''Ala day (Ik leef alleen voor jou)'' en ''Never nooit meer''. Hist ...

, Boris Titulaer,

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, Izaline Calister,

Angela Groothuizen Angela Groothuizen (born 28 September 1959) is a Dutch singer and television personality. Her initial fame came as a member of the Dolly Dots. Biography Angela Groothuizen was born in Alkmaar, and has four brothers and sisters. She joined the ...

and Edgar Burgos.Ode aan de King of Kaseko
AVROTROS. Retrieved February 11, 2016. In 2013 both solo-albums were reissued on one cd as part of TopNotch's ''Sranan Gowtu''-series (''Surinamese Gold'') devoted to Surinamese artists, mainly from the 1970s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hugo, Lieve 1934 births 1975 deaths 20th-century Surinamese male singers Musicians from Paramaribo Dutch-language singers