A group of ten young men wearing hoodies disperse on the stage of the Oosterpoort in Groningen. And there emerges the Amsterdam pop sensation Roxy Dekker, singing the first lines of her hit ‘We’re leaving‘ with rapper Ronnie Flex, who dances next to her: “What are we doing here? How did we get here? A quarter past four and I’m off balance…” Hesitation briefly echoes through the packed large hall: huh, is she the winner? But the confetti pops and soon hands go up for the tingling chorus of the big summer hit. “Are we leaving? I don’t even like house music. I only dance because of you. When you’re down, I’m down, down, down.”
Singer Roxy Dekker won the Pop Prize last weekend at the Noorderslag festival in Groningen’s Oosterpoort, traditionally the ‘New Year’s reception’ for the music industry. And she would have pinched her for that, warned as she was against traditional moral outrage about ‘Pop Prize hijackers’. No music award has such an impact. It’s a typical divisive issue of artistic content versus cultural impact.
The fact is that Dekker left her mark on the pop year 2024 with four number 1 hits. And on Spotify her song ‘Sugardaddy’ was the most listened to with more than 66 million streams. She is a phenomenon, according to the report of the jury, which consisted of various music experts – from radio deejays to programmers. It almost sounded like an apology as the jury stated that they simply could not ignore the unprecedented success of the twenty-year-old Amsterdam singer and TikTokker. “Like no other, she managed to capture the spirit of the times in sharp, humorous texts full of self-mockery about her own generation.”
Too early?
But now look at the opinions tumbling over each other: this important prize for the artistic über-young Roxy Dekker would come too soon. After all, she only made eight songs and has yet to give her first club performance under her own name (in April she will be in Paradiso and the Melkweg in Amsterdam). Or look at Noorderslag becoming mainstream. “The flattening and impoverishment of music continues, partly due to the TikTok followers who have saltless taste!”, says someone in the poll who Dagblad van het Noorden asked whether Dekker deserves the Pop Prize. 62 percent preferred to see another winner.
The singer herself had come to Groningen from Amsterdam to race on Saturday evening. She had performed in the Ziggo Dome with the popular boy group Bankzitters. To the audience: “I’m glad that people are enthusiastic after all. I was a bit afraid of it.” Fighting back tears: “Oh, I don’t want to cry now. But this is so special, a year ago I was here on the smallest stage.” Then, unlike the longer shows of previous winners, she sings only two songs with her deejay.
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Roxy Dekker is the Dutch pop sensation of the moment: ‘Not another gold record. I just couldn’t handle it anymore’
Controversial
The discussion surrounding the Pop Prize winner has a long tradition. Bands are embraced, streaming success is distrusted. Singer Dekker’s win also brings to mind the memorable, controversial Pop Prize winner of 2017: hip-hop collective New Wave with torchbearers Ronnie Flex and Lil’ Kleine. They won then because of their staggering amount of streams. But they also evoked a wave of disgust during the award ceremony: had the jury gone crazy to choose bouncing, adolescent, foul-mouthed rappers? During their cheerful performance, the hall in De Oosterpoort was empty.
Dekker’s success also relies heavily on social media and clever viral marketing. Young people run away with her, older music lovers prefer to see recognition for artists with a broader impact. But last year’s winner, Joost Klein, also received criticism, even though he also “captured the spirit of the times”, according to the jury. And so it happened to Goldband, the year before their music was considered the ‘soundtrack of the post-corona era’.
This year, the singers Froukje (strong pop year with many highlights of major shows and a strong album) and Eefje de Visser (strong album and striking concerts, according to experts, already missed out on the prize in 2021 because the prize was not awarded due to corona) highly estimated.
Speculate
Certainly, the prize has often been awarded to bands with many years of service such as De Dijk, Racoon, The Nits. But one of the biggest misunderstandings about the Pop Prize is that it is an oeuvre prize. Unlike many other music awards, you can never count on it in your career. Golden Earring also knows this, which stopped in 2021 after fifty years without this prize. And Doe Maar, Boudewijn de Groot, rock band De Staat and the poetic rapper Typhoon never received the pop prize. Another misconception: that international recognition counts. Of course, deejay Martin Garrix once won with his impressive world figures, but music as an export product is also not a decisive factor.
The Pop Prize traditionally goes to the artist who has ‘made the most important contribution to Dutch pop music’. And this can be done in countless ways: through innovation, artistic performance, contemporaneity or through clever increases in scale to a large audience. But what always remains the same is the discussion about it.