Dries Roelvink is one of the few singers whose bank account is bulging even though he never has any hits. What is the reason for this? Supermarket chain Jumbo. “9 million meatballs have already been sold.”
Dries Roelvink will hate that he is seen as a cult figure and is therefore not even allowed to climb Carré’s stage. The singer lives comfortably, has a bulging bank account and the financial end is nowhere in sight. In fact, he is now 67, so he no longer has to work for the money. Partly thanks to the Jumbo.
Meatballs
Before those silly videos of Dries smelling wine, he made videos about meatballs on Instagram all the time. That inspired the supermarket chain to sell meatballs with Dries’ face on the packaging. It is supposedly according to the folk singer’s recipe, but it is mainly a marketing trick.
A particularly lucrative marketing trick. “I have my performances and can still call myself the most booked artist in the Netherlands. We also have our soap, and to top it all off, the meatballs in the supermarket are also a great success,” he says in conversation with The Telegraph.
9 million
Those meatballs have been flying off the shelves for years, says Dries. “That is not normal. The store recently came with the latest figures: we are almost at 9 million meatballs sold with my name on them.”
When asked whether it is lucrative, he answers: “Yes, it really is. In the beginning you think: hey, how much is it in the store for? And I only get this? It is the enormous numbers that make it very interesting. Moreover, I am not in the kitchen to make them myself.”
‘Taps hard’
Dries initially didn’t see much in it, but: “It was my manager Frank Wisse who told me that there are 700 of those stores. If they only sell about ten every day, that’s really hard. Not normal.”
“Every now and then my wife Honoria, who does my administration, asks: ‘Do you want to know how much you have saved on those balls in recent months?’ Then my ears really start to flap. I’m not saying this to brag, it’s just funny. (…) No, I’m not that worried financially anymore.”