Stella Maessen (born 6 August 1953 in

Zandvoort Zandvoort () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is one of the major beach resorts of the Netherlands; it has a long sandy beach. It is bordered by coastal dunes of Zuid-Kennemerland National Park and the Amsterdam ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

) is a Dutch singer, best known for her participation in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

s of 1970, 1977 and 1982.

Hearts of Soul

In 1969 Maessen and her older sisters Patricia and Bianca formed a group, calling themselves

Hearts of Soul The Hearts of Soul, also known as Dream Express and LBS, were a Dutch-Belgian Musical ensemble, musical group that originally consisted of the Indonesian-born Dutch sisters Bianca Maessen, Bianca (born 30 June 1950), Patricia Maessen, Patricia ...

. Following several single releases, and a No. 11 chart hit with "Fat Jack", they took part in the 1970 Dutch Eurovision selection, where their song " Waterman" ("Aquarius") earned a narrow victory, qualifying them for the 15th

, which took place on 21 March on home ground in

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. Technically, groups of more than two singers were still barred from Eurovision at that time, so to get around this they billed themselves as 'Patricia and the Hearts of Soul', implying that Stella and Bianca were backing singers to Patricia's lead. In a small field of 12, "Waterman" placed seventh.

Dream Express

In 1973, the Maessens moved to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, where they became in-demand backing vocalists. Bianca had married a Belgian singer, Luc Smets, and the four decided to form a group called Dream Express, enjoying immediate success with a single, also called "Dream Express", which reached No. 2 on the

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

chart in 1976. In 1977, Dream Express entered, and won, the Belgian Eurovision selection with the song " A Million in One, Two, Three". Sung in English, it was a very contemporary track which was widely regarded as one of the favourites for that year's

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster submits an origina ...

, held in London on 7 May. Its seventh-place finish of 17 entrants was therefore considered something of a disappointment. Patricia left Dream Express soon afterwards, and the others carried on as LBS before disbanding in 1981.

Solo

In 1981, now billed simply as Stella, Maessen participated in the Belgian selection as a solo artist with the song "Veel te veel" ("Much Too Many"), which reached the final but failed to win. She returned in 1982 with the French language song " Si tu aimes ma musique" ("If You Like My Music"), which was successful and went on to the 27th

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, England on 24 April. Although that year's contest proved to be a one-horse race (with a runaway

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victory), Maessen managed a creditable fourth place of 18 entries, also achieving the rare distinction of receiving points from every other participating country.ESC History – 1982
/ref> Maessen continued performing and recording until 1988, when her last single, "Flashlight", was released. In November 2010 Stella released a new single with her two sisters Bianca and Doreen Maessen as Hearts of Soul: "Suddenly You".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maessen, Stella 1953 births Living people People from Zandvoort Dutch women singers Indo people Dutch people of Indonesian descent Eurovision Song Contest entrants