She grew up in De Wijk, lived in Meppel for years and was on stage during Pride this year. Of The shame of the village singer-songwriter Maartje (27) sings about love for another woman and scores success online.
And that happens faster than she thought. Her song has already been streamed more than 160,000 times on Spotify, the video was shared en masse during Pride and it is receiving plenty of attention on TikTok. “It all still takes a while,” she laughs.
Maartje Stadhouders recently moved to Amsterdam. In The shame of the village she goes back to her Drenthe roots, where she still visits often. The song is not a personal confession, but rather a loving ode.
“I sing that I want to be the shame of the village for someone else,” she explains. “For me, that is not a burden, but a way of saying: I choose you, regardless of what others may think.”
At a younger age it proved difficult for Maartje to be openly queer. “I used to dare to deviate a bit, was expressive, stood on stage, but I felt shame around this theme. For me it was not an option to explore my feelings further and be openly lesbian.”
That no longer bothers her and that freedom ultimately brought her closer to someone from her own past. Maartje got into a relationship with a girl she has known since high school.
“We only really came into contact with each other much later,” says Stadhouders. “It’s wonderful that we have found each other now, but sometimes I think: what a shame that we didn’t dare to get to know each other better then.”
The success of The shame of the village surprises her. Clips with the song have already been viewed more than 300,000 times on TikTok. “It’s nice that it’s going a bit viral,” she says modestly.
Stadhouders does not sit still, she is now busy working on new music. She does this together with her regular producer Luca Janzen. They work on everything together. From writing and recording songs to creating content for social media.
Maartje does not have a label. “We are building it up slowly. Step by step we are trying to reach more people. First with individual performances and in the future a private club tour would be very cool.”
Despite her new life in Amsterdam, Drenthe still feels like home to Maartje. She hopes to return with her music more often in the future. “I think it would be wonderful to do more performances in Drenthe,” she says.
“Drenthe remains my province, where my girlfriend and I can sit together at the bar without any problems. People know us, so for them we belong to their community. But that makes me aware of the limits of their acceptance, even in my presence my community (LGBTQIA+) is still mocked.”
A former classmate from De Wijk recently sent her a message: you are always welcome here. “That’s super sweet,” the singer concludes.