“I’m Boer Harms and I’m from Drenthe and I love disco”, who can’t sing along? The song was of course sung by the Drenthe band The Dutch Boys. They gained national fame in 1980 with the song Eppo. Then came the single Boer Harms, which became a real hit in 1982.
After the success of this song, the members of The Dutch Boys decide to become professional musicians. In the years that followed, the composition changed a few times and after 25 years of making music they thought it was nice.
But the public has rediscovered Boer Harms and The Dutch Boys and since 2019 the Drenthes have been performing again in the original line-up. At the end of September, reporter Ineke Kemper meets the men in the dressing room at the Donders Dikke Tent Party in Hollandscheveld. For the Expeditie Nederland program she makes a report about a Drenthe evergreen. “Then you immediately think of Boer Harms,” says Ineke.
That Saturday evening in Hollandscheveld, the men just found out that ‘Boer Harms’, Henk de Roo, is seriously ill. Their immediate environment is aware, but the fans are not yet. And they will keep it that way for a while. During the performance in the party tent, they turned the tent upside down. The ten thousand people in the tent sing along with Boer Harms at the top of their lungs, not knowing that it may be one of the last performances of the trio.
So time to dive into the story of the song Boer Harms. Henk de Roo, Cor Maatje and Jans Hoogeveen explain how the song came about and the success they have achieved with it. Of course they had hoped for that success, but did not see it coming.
You can see this and more in the report below from Expeditie Nederland.