Greetje Kauffeld

Biography

Greetje Kauffeld was born in Rotterdam and sang as a child the hits of well-known American artists. During school time she sang in the school choir. At age 13, she sang in a young band that participated in a Radio Hilversum competition. Later, the family moved to Zeeland. After school Kauffeld first became a telephone operator. At 16, she was the lead singer of the "Skymasters", a well-known group. With them, Kauffeld made several radio broadcasts and concert tours. Since the orchestra also accompanied such artists as de:Evelyn Künneke, de:René Carol, Rudi Schuricke and Fred Bertelmann, Kauffeld came into contact with all the known pop stars of the time. On the occasion of their participation in the "Festival de la canzone" in Venice, de:Erwin Lehn invited the group to participate in his radio station, the South German Radio in Stuttgart. Here he made several recordings with her.

In 1961 de:Heinz Gietz heard her singing during a performance in the Stuttgart Liederhalle and gave her a record contract. She also played in the German television series "Game with fours". In 1961 several tracks were recorded, but it was not a success. During this time she began a collaboration with Paul Kuhn beginning with a few duets, where "Every Day I Love You a little Bit More" was the most successful. She was also successful in her home country, The Netherlands. In 1961 she represented The Netherlands at the EuroVision Song Contest singing "Wat een dag" (What a day) and finished in 10th place.

In 1963 she competed with "Nur bei dir" (Only With You) at the German Schlager Festival in Baden-Baden but failed to qualify for the final.

In 1964 she released the song "We Can Only Write Letters". The song was an absolute hit, which remained for weeks in the charts. In the meantime it had become a German Schlager Evergreen.

Following the expiration of her recording contract in 1967, she performed in Los Angeles, USA, but returned soon after to Europe. In 1970 she married her longtime friend Joop de Roo who advised her to change her music genre. She switched to jazz and received great success in the Netherlands and later in Germany. She has appeared with renowned jazz musicians and in 1981 recorded a jazz album. In 1980 she was recognized as the best soloist at the Euro-American Nordring radio festival.

In 1986 Kauffeld had her own jazz trio with her singing accompanied by a tenor saxophone and guitar. They received several jazz awards and accolades, including the "nl:Gouden Notenkraker" and the Jazz Prize of den Hertogenbosch city. In addition, she became a lecturer at the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht in Hilversum, where she has mentored many young jazz musicians including de:Pit Witt.

Since 1993 she regularly performs in Germany, especially with the "Siggi Gerhard-Swingtett". She is always a welcome guest at many gigs In 2002, Greetje Kauffeld performed with jazz pianist de:Dirk Raufeisen in the program "A Lovely Way to Spend at Evening".

In 1999 Kauffeld was honored with the Ridder in De Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw (Order of the Netherlands Lion).

In 2005 she began a collaboration with the Swingin' Fireballs from Bremen. This resulted in a Christmas CD that was released in 2006 by nl:Mons Records.

Also in 2006, her memoirs, "Was für Tage …" (What for days ...) was published by the German journalist Ingo Schiweck. In celebration of her 75th birthday in 2014, this book was greatly updated.

In November 2014 Kauffeld was awarded an Edison Jazz Oeuvre prize. This was presented to her by nl:Joke Bruijs during the Dutch television program "Tijd voor MAX" (Time for MAX).

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