The phone of superfan Joyce Hamer (37) from Oploo pretty much exploded on Thursday evening, after Guus Meeuwis announced that he would stop with the Groots with a soft-G concerts in Eindhoven. “How are you now, Miss?” asked several of her students. Her mother and several friends also immediately sent her messages. Whether she had already heard the news from Guus?
Of course she had heard the news. After all, Guus had announced on Thursday evening that he was going to come with news, but Joyce had not expected this announcement, she says Friday morning just before she goes to her class.
She was seventeen years ago at the first ‘Groots’ concert and she already has tickets for the upcoming concerts in June. She has already seen the Tilburg singer perform at least three hundred times and after the forced corona break she saw her 58th Groots concert last year.
“Closer in 2024? A new little song, as small as possible.”
Joyce wasn’t the only one whose phone exploded. That of Guus himself was also working overtime. “I received a lot of reactions,” says the singer in an interview with Omroep Brabant. “In a world in which so much is happening, the stopping of Groots was also news,” laughs Guus. That shows how much the concerts meant to people.
For a moment it crossed Joyce’s mind that it could be an April Fool’s joke. “But that would be a very sour joke. Not for Guus,” she says firmly.
For now, she is especially looking forward to the upcoming concerts in June with great pleasure. She has been going to the first ‘Groots’ for a few years with her eldest son who is now 13. She visits the second concert with a group of fans and the third with a friend.
And of course she has also thought about what it will be like in 2024 at the very last Groots concert in the Philips Stadium. It’s not a question for her to be there. “I have to be there,” she says.
“I can then put all my creativity into new things.”
It will mainly be ‘crying very loudly’, for herself but also for Guus, she expects. Joyce also has ideas about the closing song for that concert. “A new little song,” she estimates. “As small as possible. After all, everyone in the stadium has a knot in their stomach at that moment.”
Guus admits that he will also miss Groots. “Without a doubt,” he says. “But I’m also sure that great things will come after that.” He has been busy with Groots for a whole year. “It controls your agenda and your creativity for a whole year. Now I can put my energy and time into new things.”
But he doesn’t start with that right away: “First my new album will be released and then the attention will of course go to the Groots editions of 2023 and 2024. We will be very busy with that in the near future. After that there is only room for other things,” said the singer.
“I keep moving Guus posters to my new classroom.”
Joyce refuses to believe that after that last Groots concert in June 2024, she will no longer have ‘Guus-free’ in June. She has not yet canceled the Friday that she always takes off for the concert series. So her students and colleagues don’t have to count on her that day.
And her students will not be able to escape Guus after 2024. “They are being re-educated by me with good music,” she laughs. “And the posters on the wall of my classroom will continue to hang even after next year: Groots concerts or not.”
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