Lenny Kuhr

Vocation

Notable

Dutch singer-songwriter. As a child she was impressed by the negro spirituals of Mahalia Jackson. Her talent was discovered at the "Cabaret der Onbekenden" (cabaret of the unknown), where also Anneke Grönloh and Armand started. In the unique 1969 Eurovision Song festival of Madrid she shared the first prize with Frida Boccara (Un jour, un enfant), Lulu (Boom bang-a-bang) and Salomé (Vivo cantando). Her song was "De troubadour". She had success in France, singing with George Brassens and had in 1972 a number 1 hit with the negro spiritual like "Jesus Cristo" (1971). In 1993 she suddenly lost her voice. It took seven years before she came back, now mostly singing in small theatres. Apart from singing Dutch and French chansons, she is also a noted fado and duende singer. Personal In 1974 she married the top ENT surgeon Gideon Bialystock. She met him May 1973 at the VU hospital in Amsterdam after she had been molested at the train station of Haarlem. The molester mistook her for his ex girlfriend. Her nose needed an operation and she wrote the song "De neus" (the nose) about it. Lenny Kuhr converted to Judaism and lived several years in Israel with her two daughters Sharon and Daphna. The divorce from Bialystock was difficult. From 1981 till 1993 had a relationship with the songwriter Herman Pieter de Boer (9 Feb 1928, Rotterdam - 1 January 2014, early morning, Eindhoven). From 1979 to 2005 he wrote songs for her. Around 2003 Lenny Kuhr married the retired physician Rob Frank. Link to Wikipedia