Anouk has been described as a tenacious performer and aspirational artist. Evidence of her strong independent attitude and self-sufficiency emanated at a young age. By the time she was 14 years old she was living separately from her family and transitioned to and from several care homes due to her experimentation with drugs. Around this time she was already performing music professionally, taking up gigs singing at weddings and parties with her band Shotgun Wedding. Her passion and talent for music stemmed to some degree from her mother, who was a singer in a blues/ R&B band.
When Anouk was 18 she too fronted an R&B band, but later left the group to attend Rotterdam Music Academy. Anouk eventually left the academy to pursue a solo career. Through her then-husband/manager Edwin Jansen, she came in to contact with Golden Earring members Barry Hay and George Kooymans. The latter collaborated with Anouk on her first single “Mood Indigo” and with Hay produced some of her following studio albums. Before any of her albums were conceived, she went on to co-write a couple of songs with Bart van Veen and in September 1997 issued her largely successful 2nd single “Nobody’s Wife”, which topped the Dutch music charts and made a huge impact in Norway and Sweden. The hit track was included on her debut studio album “Together Alone” alongside 2 other top 30 singles “It’s So Hard” and Sacrifice”.
Following the critical and commercial success experience from her debut album, Anouk released her sophomore effort “Urban Solitude” in late 1999. The album made it into the Dutch Top 100, but did not initially make an impression in the US due to her failure to strike a record deal in that country.
She made a return in 2001 with the compilation album “Lost Tracks”, which featured duets with various artists, live renditions of previously recorded tracks, and material that did not receive release in the past. The album hit No.1 on the Dutch charts and was also certified Gold.
Anouk released her heaviest and most rock oriented album in 2002, “Graduated Fool”. This album preceded her attainment of the Golden Harp Award. “Graduated Fool” might have been Anouk’s hardest rocking and sonically experimental album to date, but “Hotel New York” was her most popular. The album contained 4 hit singles and claimed the No.1 position on the charts for 12 weeks.
Three years later Anouk issued her 5th studio album “Who’s Your Momma?”, which was proceeded by 2009s “For Bitter or Worse”. “To Get Her Together” came out 2 years later and produced the 4 singles: “Down and Dirty”, “I’m a Cliche”, “Save Me”, and “What Have You Done”. Anouk topped the Dutch Charts again with her 2013 release “Sad Singalong Songs” and in 2014 delved into the disparate genres of punk and soft-rock for her album “Paradise and Back Again”.
Anouk is the mononym of the Duch singer-songwriter and producer. She has had some fantastic success over the years, with many singles gracing the Dutch and Belgian charts such as the songs that she delivers this evening to this adoring audience in this huge venue. The vibe is electric and these patrons are very excited to see this alternative rock sensei take to this stage. Her sound has been compared to that of Joan Osborne, Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette. Tonight she delivers a batch of perfected rock songs that keep the vibe of this dark intimate venue, a wild one. She opens with the wild track “Nobody’s Wife” which has this audience doing a mixture of fist pumping and moshing, all of the above seems to be encouraged. It is one debauched night but of course it is balanced out with the stripped back songs “Lost" and “Michael" where the whole audience just stop and listen to what is going on which keeps everything fresh, the wave of energy being a chilled one in places but all go at all the right times.
Lannistaar
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