That was it: the very last concert of Lenny Kuhr (76). The Eindhoven singer leaves with her husband for Israel, where her children and grandchildren live. Sunday was her last performance at the Schiller Theater in Utrecht. “I especially feel great gratitude that I was allowed to do this,” she tells De Telegraaf.
With this concert she said goodbye to her Dutch fans. “I have felt a lot in recent months. Everything you sing takes on a different meaning and personally I am confronted with the fact that things are finite. Whenever I wanted to say something about this to my audience, I became emotional. Then I would fill up and when you sing, of course you cannot have a blockage in your throat,” she tells The Telegraph.
During the concert she sang her farewell program Licht again. Fans in the audience sang along with her and of course autographs were signed afterwards. “After signing, I looked into my fans’ eyes. I saw that they were moved. Some of them I have known for five decades.”
“It’s a shame that it ends like this after more than fifty years in the business.”
There are fans who have written her letters to say that they play her music when they are having a hard time. “They describe my music as healing. When I hear that, I feel gratitude. But I also think: it’s a shame that it ends like this after more than fifty years in the profession.”
The reason for her departure from the Netherlands is not an easy one. At the age of 25, Kuhr became Jewish and now she and her husband are moving to Israel ‘because the climate is no longer good for Jews in the Netherlands’. In addition, her children also live there, so it is a logical choice for her to move that way and enjoy her last years there.
Kuhr has recently been confronted with threats, mainly via email. Her concert was also disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists. This is no different at her latest concert. There were also a handful of demonstrators with banners. Fans of the singer could cry about it. That a great artist has to say goodbye like this.
