Jeangu Macrooy does not like the fact that broccoli jokes were made about his failed Eurovision song Birth of a New Age. “That hurt me.”
Jeangu Macrooy’s Eurovision adventure ended in a huge failure last year. His song Birth of a New Age did not catch on at all and to make matters worse, many jokes were made about it in his own country. To many people it sounded like he was singing about a broccoli in that song.
Broccoli, broccoli
Jeangu is very concerned about that, he says The parole. “The Eurovision Song Contest has brought me a lot, but there were also lesser sides. I found it difficult that the message of my song was also ridiculed. I still get shouted ‘broccoli, broccoli’ on the street from time to time.”
Very insensitive, the singer thinks. “Apparently many people didn’t want to muster the energy to understand why I incorporated that line in Sranantongo (Yu no man broko mi means ‘You can’t break me’) into my song.”
‘hurts a lot’
It is very hurtful to Jeangu when people yell ‘broccoli’. He can’t laugh at that. “That hurt me. It makes me feel ‘that other’ again for the first time in ages. The Netherlands has only recently started working on its colonial history, but apparently this was still too early in the process.”
Finally: is Jeangu disappointed that his Eurovision adventure has failed so badly? “I was a bit surprised how much people value such a ranking. For me, the feeling after the final was: ‘I participated, gave everything and now I will continue’, but people apparently think very much in terms of winners and losers.”
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The interview with Jeangu:
