The time has almost come: next week the series of ten sold-out Gelredome concerts by Suzan & Freek starts. Would they have succeeded if he was not terminally ill? “People sympathize.”
It is a smart move by Suzan & Freek to perform ten times in the Gelredome now that he is terminally ill. In this way, Suzan Stortelder can financially secure her future when the time comes that her beloved Freek Rikkerink passes away. The concerts, which start next week, will net them around 4 million euros.
400 thousand tickets
Radio 10 DJ Gijs Staverman thinks that Freek’s diagnosis certainly helped to sell the almost 400 thousand (!) tickets. “If you notice that something terrible happens to Freek and that he gets such a terrible disease, then a lot of people sympathize with them,” he says at the desk of Show news.
He thinks that the entire country wants to support them. “There are ten concerts in the Gelredome, 400,000 people attend. It is indescribable. If there are ten more concerts, I think they will also be sold out, because we just sympathize with them. They are just very nice people and very good artists.”
‘Were already popular’
Show news presenter Dyantha Brooks thinks that Suzan & Freek did not sell out those ten concerts only because he is terminal. “Let’s not forget that even before Freek got sick, they also sold out Ziggo Dome after Ziggo Dome. It’s not like their popularity came about because of that.”
Gijs: “I also find that a bit annoying that some people say: ‘Yes, but his illness, and he is going to milk it like that.’”
‘People always complain’
According to Private Boss Evert Santegoeds, you shouldn’t listen to those kinds of people at all. “People are always complaining,” he says.
Gijs concludes: “Exactly, but they were already gigantic artists. Then something bad happens and people in the Netherlands only sympathize with them very much, so I think that’s only a good thing.”