From songs that blare through the car garage every day to songs sung by a pop choir. Everyone has a thing for music, listens or sings their own favorites, and that is exactly what the Drenthe 1000 is all about. This week is Drenthe voting week and you can decide what we play on Radio Drenthe in the last week of the year.
For the voting week, Aaldert travels to Dieverbrug, to Stolk Autoservice, early in the morning. “The first employee who comes into the workshop not only turns on the lights, but also immediately the radio,” says owner Emiel Stolk. “Because music in the workshop creates atmosphere and gives everyone a positive feeling.”
During the week the music is set to quiet. Stolk: “We also receive customers here and make telephone calls. Then it shouldn’t be too loud and not too crazy. Sometimes we listen to Dutch, sometimes Top 40 and of course Radio Drenthe. But on Friday afternoon we start the weekend and we have a free choice of music. Then the wrong hits blare from the speakers here.”
Stolk himself has a broad taste. “There isn’t really a line there. From sing-alongs to Italian music that contains emotion.” For the Drenthe 1000 he chooses a killer pub hit, which certainly wouldn’t look out of place on a crazy Friday afternoon. “Baila de Gasolina. Of course, that song is about fuel. A miracle song.”
About thirty kilometers to the north, the voices of more than sixty singers can be heard in Assen during a rehearsal of pop choir Xing. Under the direction of conductor Mark Pepping, they usually sing their songs in five-part harmony. The choir’s repertoire consists of no fewer than fifty songs. But the number that the members would like to have in the Drenthe 1000 is not.
“No,” laughs chairman Ineke Schuitema. The choir has jointly chosen to feature Hannah Mae and Maksim with the song I want you to lie to put on one. “Hannah is from Emmen and she is a fantastic singer. Perhaps, if the conductor agrees, it will still find a place in our repertoire.”
From pop choir Xing, Aaldert flutters on to the Stadskerk in Emmen, where the mixed Butterfly Choir rehearses. There they sing Fleedwood Mac, The Monkees, Leonard Cohen and Sting. But not only the sixties, seventies and eighties are popular, there are also songs from the present in the repertoire. “We also sing the song People by the 3J’s, for example,” says conductor Jan Smale.
But number one in the democratic list of the Vlinderkoor is not a current Dutch hit, but something English. “I still haven’t found what I was looking for from U2,” said Smale. “That’s actually my favorite with this choir.”
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