Joost Spijkers has won the Annie MG Schmidt Prize, the award for the most impressive Dutch theater song of the year.
The singer and actor from Linne won the prize for his song about death, Welcome Home, from his theater performance Hotel Spijkers. For example, it was announced on Sunday evening during the award ceremony in Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam.
Vicious and sadistic
Spijkers, writer Peer Wittenbols and composers Arend Niks and Andreas Suntrop were presented with a bronze statue and a cash prize of 3,500 euros for Welcome Home from jury chairman Jurrian van Dongen. The jury, which also included Cor Bakker and Eva Bauknecht, was full of praise for the song. “There are many songs about this phenomenon, but De Dood himself rarely spoke. And then De Dood turns out to be even more vicious, sadistic and more arbitrary than we had imagined. But he also puts enough black humor in his statement of intent, so we want to keep listening,” the report reads.
Nominations
The five other nominees were Richard Groenendijk, Wende, LisaLoeb, Peter van Rooijen and Janne Schra. Last year the duo Yentlen de Boer won.
Annual price
The Annie MG Schmidt Prize has been awarded since 1991 by the Amsterdams Kleinkunst Festival and Buma Cultuur to a lyricist, composer and performer for the best theater song of the previous year.