André Hazes Jr. indeed walked away angry from Bas Smit’s Amsterdam Summer concert, he says in his documentary. Whatever we see? How he gossips with Yuki Kempees about Bas’ blunder…
Bas Smit is notorious when it comes to organizing events: as a conductor of disorder, everything he touches turns into a kind of survival trip. Nicolette van Dam’s husband committed another huge blunder last summer. At the end of his Amsterdam Summer concert, around 11 p.m., André Hazes Jr. was cut off in the middle of his song.
Futility
After two and a half songs, André’s microphone was abruptly turned off, the lights went out and everyone had to leave. Really strange – it all seemed terribly amateurish. RTL Boulevard reported at the time that André had left furious, but Bas did not want to hear all the criticism. He simply called cutting off André’s set a ‘little thing’.
Well, for André it was certainly not a ‘little thing’. In the latest episode of his Videoland documentary, the singer goes all out on Bas’ bad organization. “The Amsterdam Summer evening one… I close the show together with the band and I had to play six songs,” he begins his explanation in the documentary.
Song from your set
And then? André: “The show ran late and then the organization of Amsterdamse Zomer came to me and said: ‘Dré, we need a song from your set.’ And then I said: ‘Yes, no, I don’t want anything out, I’m not very happy about that.’ “Yes, please, please, you’re really helping us with that.” I say, ‘Okay, then one goes out.’”
André finally changes tack, those people come at him again. “Ten minutes later: ‘Dré, sorry, but one more has to be taken out.’ I say, ‘Yes, that’s definitely not going to happen.’ ‘Yes, but we have to, because at 11 p.m. the power goes out and we have to stop. The municipality really has to do that, so we really don’t have a choice.’ I say, ‘Well, fine then.’”
Slap your mouth
André’s confidence decreased considerably. “Then at one point it was 10:54 or so and I looked at the guy from that organization and he said, ‘No, you can actually finish your set, really,’ but at 11 p.m. the music would break out, so I sing: ‘And… He… Said…’ And I was being all the twink like that, and then it was over, black…”
André was cut off in the middle of Leef, just as he started the chorus. He stormed off stage furiously to get as far away from Bas and his buddies as possible. “I was so furious, because I felt like such an idiot. I immediately left, I thought: before I really punch someone in the mouth, because I was so angry about it.”
‘Never so angry’
Setlist saboteur Bas really pissed André off. “I’ve seen Dré angry before, but never this angry,” says André’s former manager Ricardo Klaverdijk. “I had a heated argument with the organization until two o’clock in the morning and also really received ultimatums. (…) That is really a slap in the face as an artist.”
André: “Then you almost have the feeling that it is done on purpose or something, you know? That is the feeling you are left with. You shouldn’t stay stuck in that.”
Gossip about Bas
In the documentary we see how André gossips with fellow artists the next day about the poor organization. These images are alternated with images of the boss of the stuff, Bas Smit. “I heard there was some fuss yesterday,” says Yuki Kempees of Kris Kross Amsterdam. “With us too. Totally shit. We really had a lot of bullshit today.”
André: “Yes, but bro, I was just standing in the dark, right?”
Yuki: “F*cking nonsense, but okay.”
Shameless
We also see how André approaches Willeke Alberti. She has already punished Bas for his poor organization. “Hello ma’am,” the singer says to the musical legend.
Willeke: “I understand it completely.”
André: “I thought it was really shameless yesterday.”
All awful juicy So. The good news? Bas will ‘organize’ those concerts again next year. 🍿