Bobbejaan Schoepen
Encyclopedia : B : BO : BOB : Bobbejaan Schoepen
Guitarist and composer Bobbejaan Schoepen (°1925) is a Flemish entertainer, singer, guitarist and composer. He is also an actor, fantasist and founder of the Bobbejaanland "amusement park" in Belgium.
He is the first Belgian singer who pursued successfully an international career. Bobbejaan Schoepen also introduced the American Country music to the masses of the Low Countries. Except from Great Brittain he's probably the only European artist that performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville (three performances with Roy Acuff in 1953).
The Nazi's had put him in jail during his debut in 1943 in Antwerp (Ancienne Belgique): he sang a South-African song "No mom no, I don't want German man, cause I don't eat schweinefleisch", what was interpreted as anti-German. In 1947 he went back to Germany and performed for many months the American and Canadian soldiers in Frankfurt and Berlin (e.g. American general and military governor Lucius D. Clay who asked him for some extra performances).
His musical repertorium contains more than 500 songs. His first record became a hit single in Belgium in 1948: De jodelende fluiter ("The Yodeling Whistler"). In 1949 he entertained also the Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian war. (127 performances within three months with his own show).
He enjoyed an enormous popularity at the end of the fifties and the beginning of the seventies. In 1951 the Belgian jazz musician Toots Thielemans was a member of his band, and in January 1955 the Belgian singer Jacques Brel played in his show in the legendary concert hall Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. He also did concert tours with Joséphine Baker, Caterina Valente, Gilbert Bécaud, and had performed in front of the English Queen Mum in 1957. The same year he recorded in New York for RCA-records with the legendary Steve Sholes. He also performed in the Ed Sullivan show and once with country singer Red Foley (1910-1968) in Springfield Missouri. In 1974 country singer Tex Williams recorded his single "Fire and Blisters".
In 1957, he was the second Belgian contestant to the Eurovision Song Contest 1957, tying for eighth place with Lys Assia with the whistle-song "Straatdeuntje". The performance is memorable, as it featured a whistling solo. Schoepen is also rumoured not to have known which song he was to perform at the Contest until he arrived, only rehearsing his entry once before performance.
In 1959 and 1960 Bobbejaan Schoepen covered "Pub with no beer", of the Australian country singer Slim Dusty (1957, written by Gordon Parsons). The Dutch and German cover versions of the song became number one hits (even evergreens) in Belgium, Austria and Germany. A few years later Bobbejaan's evergreen "Eerbied voor jouw grijze haren" became an international hit covered by the popular German singers Heino, Camillo Felgen and also James Last. (over three million sold)
In 1959 Bobbejaan Schoepen got weary of touring and decided to build his on music theater: he built a venue where he could perform as often as he liked. In 1961, the Bobbejaanland amusement park was born (his personal manager Jacques Kluger invented the name) In 1975 he and his wife Josée decided to build an attraction park around his theater, which became one of the most popular amusements parks in Europe.
During his career, Bobbejaan Schoepen performed in 5 films as an actor of singer. In 1999 the alternative rock band Dead Man Ray wrote a new soundtrack for the film "At the Drop of A Head" (alias De Ordonnans or Pub with no beer) and went on tour with the film in the Low Countries. It's a movie which starred Bobbejaan Schoepen in 1962 (the original soundtrack was by the at that time immensely popular pop band Les Cousins (The Cousins).
In 2004 Bobbejaan and his family decided to sell Bobbejaanland to the Spanish Parques Reunidos group. Recently the artist is focused again on his musical career, working on a new CD-release.
Greatest hits (int.)
- Ich hab Ehrfurcht vor schneeweißen Haaren (1959)
- Je me suis souvent demandé (1965)
- Ich steh an der Bar und habe kein Geld (1959) (Pub with no beer)
- Lichtjes van de Schelde (1952, Belgium)
- Ein Hauschen auf der Heide (1960) / Kili watch (1961)
Managers
- Europe: Jacques Kluger
- Denmark en Iceland: Syd Fox
- US: Steve Sholes
Artist names
- Belgium en The Netherlands: Bobbejaan Schoepen
- Germany en Austria: Bobby Jaan, Bobbejaan
- Denmark en Iceland: Bobby Jaan
- France: Bobby Jaan, Bobby Jann, Bobbi-Jean
- US: Bobby John
Filmography
- Ah! t'Is zo fijn in België te leven (1950, Belgium)
- Televisite (tv-series 1955, Belgium)
- The Eurovision Song Contest (1957, Germany)
- At the Drop of a Head / De Ordonnans / Café zonder bier (1962, Belgium-England)
- O sole mio (1960, Germany)
- Davon träumen alle Mädchen (1961, Germany)
- Bobbejaanland (film production ZDF — by Vladimir Sis, 1967, Studio Barrandov Prague)
- "Der Goldene Schuß" — TV Episode (as Bobbejaan) (Musical, 1969)
References
Sources
- Bobbejaan Schoepen (Johan Roggen, Publisher Het Volk, 1980 - D/1980/2345/10).
- [De Vlaamse kleinkunstbeweging na de Tweede Wereldoorlog - Een historisch overzicht (Peter Notte, Universiteit Gent 1992)]. 'The Flemish Variety Movement after World War II - An Historical Overview'. Peter Notte, University Ghent, 1992)
- Bobbejaan Schoepen — "Histories" documentary, 4 January 2001 (Canvas/VRT)
- [Bobbejaan Schoepen — The Belgian Pop & Rock Archive (Dirk Houbrechts and the Flanders Music Center, 2001)].
- "Brel Le flamand" — Histories documentary, 2003 (Canvas/VRT).
- [Bobbejaan Schoepen Archive — Bobbejaan Records bvba ®.]
- [Official Biography Bobbejaan Schoepen — (Tom Schoepen, 2005/2006)]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.