She had not seen it coming herself, but the joy was no less: singer-songwriter Hannah Mae from Nieuw-Weerdinge won the silver nutcracker yesterday. The prize is an encouragement for striking newcomers on the Dutch pop stages.
“It was a short night,” laughs Hannah Mae the morning after the presentation. “But cozy! I didn’t sleep much, I am a bit tired, but I feel very honored.”
Secretly the singer thought it would not get any further than her nomination. “To be sure I had written out a thank you,” she laughs. “But when I heard who were all nominated, I thought: this will be difficult.”
The competition was therefore strong, including Claude, who was still active this year at the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the Netherlands.
Yet the prize went to the Drentse. And completely coincidentally, that is not now. “I had a good live year. We were on Pinkpop and Zwarte Cross, and many shows were sold out,” she admits.
Next year Hannah Mae hopes to continue that line. “New performances are coming, criss -cross throughout the country. It rolls through nicely.”
Is she also in her own Drenthe? “Unfortunately not,” she says, “but I do play in Enschede. That’s a bit around the corner,” the singer concludes.