Singer Wende Snijders simply finds her favorites in her own city

To warm up her future old bones a bit, singer Wende Snijders (43) later wants to live in ‘summer-like countries’. Preferably in Spain, in a place where there is at least water. Beautiful country, beautiful culture. Sweden is also very beautiful, she heard, but the weather is less warm there. On the other hand, she really is a morning person (‘so I chose the wrong profession’), and the nice thing about summer is that it is light so early in the morning. If you have just arrived in Sweden, you can already enjoy the sunrise around half past four in the morning. Or Brazil? Warmer and a lot more sensual too. But hey, we don’t know yet what the sea level will look like by then, and it depends on that.

This summer it is not possible to take a look at how Spain or South America is doing, because Wende wants to have a new album finished in September, and the performance will start in October. The Wilderness start again, and theater performance The Promise must also be played, somewhere in between, and Amsterdam in the summer is also very nice, though. You don’t have to go abroad for good drinks, smells and performances. And if it does start to gnaw, remember: you can also go on holiday in December.

Culture: July dance

‘Julidans is a festival for contemporary dance, with an incredibly beautiful programming. They have it very well together: every year such good choreographers come. Both young people who can do their thing there, as well as established names. Unfortunately it has already ended, but I would absolutely recommend it for next year. I’m going to the show Larsen C by the choreographer Christos Papadopoulos. What a talent, imagination and style he has. Also Re:Incarnation by Qudus Onikeku was beautiful. Please go there next year.’

Drink: Aperol Spritz

‘The best cocktail to drink when it’s warm. It’s a kind of dessert, but I like to start with it when I go out to eat somewhere. If it goes really well, I’ll end up with it, by the way. It’s great when the weather is nice, everyone is on their bikes with as little clothing as possible and there is less stress in the streets, to drink a big bubble of Aperol Spritz. The orange color is also nice, it is fresh but also bitter and sweet. And I think it’s a specific seasonal drink, just like kale, for example, is part of the winter.’

Hobby: Perfumes

‘I can’t stop smelling perfumes. There are now fifty bottles at my house, so I gave myself a perfume stopper. Wonderful scents, but also perfumes that are not so nice, but smell like a work of art. They are all niche scents, from shops where people really know about perfume, such as at the Perfume Lounge in Amsterdam. For me, every season and moment needs a different scent. This summer I like to wear the scent Smoke from Akro. It really smells like smoke, at first you think, but it smells wonderfully deep and slowly changes as you wear it. Now all I’m looking for is the perfect rose scent.’

Podcast: ‘My Fault’

Documentary researcher Roos van Ees writes a wonderful series about debt for the Flemish newspaper The standardand there recently joined a podcast at: My fault. It concerns perpetrators, for example a doctor who made a medical error that caused someone to die, or a director who was guilty of transgressive behaviour. The podcast is very well made, really incredibly intelligent and elegant. It can be tough to listen to, but she advocates an open mind, and I like that.’

Sports: Swimming in the IJ

‘I don’t like swimming pools. It is a lot nicer to swim in the open nature, and luckily that is possible in Amsterdam in the IJ. Diving into the open water is wonderful. I don’t have a specific place I always go. The best thing is to always find a new swimming spot, and thus discover your own city more and more. I have lived in Amsterdam for 23 years, and I still discover new places with swimming. Although someone recently said that the Flevoparkbad is fun. uh, yeah? Is that fun?, I thought. So I’ll have to go there too.’