It is still not clear whether Suzan & Freek will be seen as a duo coach in the Voice of Holland. Is this possible with its diagnosis? “It is very expensive if he cancels a recording.”
In recent weeks have been a rollercoaster for Suzan & Freek. It will be exactly three weeks ago that Freek Rikkerink (32) was told that he has metastatic lung cancer. A day after that diagnosis, the two made it annual, because they were devastated by grief and they would give three more shows in the Ziggo Dome that weekend.
Understandable twist
Suzan & Freek have now announced that they would perform again. “It is a very understandable twist, because they had to bring that news out very quickly, because they were actually in the middle of a series of concerts in the Ziggo Dome. You can only cancel that by telling what is going on,” says medianer Victor Vlam.
He continues in the podcast The Communicado’s: Because if you don’t say anything, it will also lead to a lot of speculation and then there are also a lot of Indian stories that go around. So you had to make that news known very quickly and normally you would think much more about it. You would first have the news sink in. “
Time pressure
Normally you keep such a diagnosis privately for much longer, says Victor. “You would really look from: what do we want with our future? And then you will make ties about it and then you only bring that outside. But it can precede a period of a few weeks.”
He continues: “Here it is literally communicated the day after the big news under that time pressure, so that mainly explains why they came up with a second message. It may not be entirely ideal of course, because it always leads to speculation on the internet. That may not be completely prevented, but it is understandable.”
Only festivals
Colleague Lars Duursma, a communication expert, also finds it understandable that they will only play at festivals for the time being. “And that seems smart in that sense, because you can actually cancel it relatively easily, also last minute. That is different from a concert in the Ziggo Dome where everyone comes for you.”
“At such a festival, yes, people come to such a festival for the other acts and everyone will understand why sometimes last minute is canceled.”
The Voice
Letting the Voice continue also becomes more difficult, says Victor. “Yes, that also applies a bit to The Voice, because that is also one thing. Are they going to do that? The recordings would start in a short time. I can imagine that that is something you don’t want to do, because it is just much harder to cancel a recording day, certainly last minute.”
He concludes: “That is just huge, of course, because there are a lot of people involved in such a recording. So then there will be a lot of pressure on someone to be there anyway. I can imagine that you don’t feel like it anymore.”