Tense faces in row 9 in the Atlas Theater. Anouk Rocks holds her phone in her right hand, wiping away a tear with her left. Her friend Lisa Harms performs during the Drèents Liedtiesfestival.
Together with other friends and family of the 26-year-old singers from Ter Apel, Rocks from Zwartemeer is sitting in the hall of the theater in Emmen. Harms is eighth to play this Thursday evening, as second to last. Her number Until the sun pours The Ter Apelse starts and ends with a solo on trumpet, the instrument she has been playing since she was 6, she said a little earlier in the announcement video.
The song with which she participates in the eleventh edition of Drèents Liedtiesfestival is about a dark period in her life; she was 10 years old when she lost her father. The hall is silent during the performance. Her friends notice that she herself becomes emotional while singing the last sentences. ‘I leave the dark behind me, know that I run from you’. After the last sounds of her trumpet, a deafening cheer erupts and not only in row 9.
Handkerchiefs
Background singer Yonina Hendriks, who herself opened the evening with her sister as the duo Sister Sister, walks over to Lisa Harms and gives her a big hug. “This was not entirely the intention,” Harms sobs when presenter Aaldert Oosterhuis holds the TV Drenthe microphone under her nose. Meanwhile, Anouk Rocks hands out paper tissues to the two friends next to her, who, like her, begin to angrily dab their eyes. “This is so beautiful,” says the Zwartemeerse. “I am very proud. And I think she is too.”
Jury member and former winner of The Voice of Holland Iris Kroes is equally impressed. “This song really touched me. Also by the trumpet. When the band came in, I really got goosebumps.” She also praises Harms for the ability to sing well just after playing on her wind instrument, which requires a completely different technique. “This is a song that I would like to hear for the first time again and again,” Kroes sighs.
What moved Rocks so much? “It’s our friend standing there, someone you love. I think it’s so great that she sang such a personal song. And you know, she has a very positive outlook on life. She is a girl with so much humor, really our party animal. And the fact that she sings such a sensitive song touches me even more. If I was nervous before she showed up. Incredibly!”
Singing truck driver
During the number Give it some time by singing truck driver Marianne Veenstra from Coevorden, the girls in row nine recover. Meanwhile, Veenstra, who was featured in the TV program earlier this year, gives Girls who drive , on stage everything. And she also has to wipe away a few tears after her performance, because she has had a more difficult time. “This has been my therapy for the past few months,” she says of the song.
The rest of the evening is a variety of completely different songs; of a solid pop rock song Like the wolves come from the Coevorder singer Werilt to the swinging Wailing sirens by Papa di Grazzi singer Marjolein Schepers from Appelscha.
And the winner is…
Bertine Snippe from Hardenberg also sings a sensitive song. It is about someone close to her who has taken her own life. Mother Hennie (70) finds it quite exciting beforehand, even though her daughter has been singing since she was 4 years old. “Whether she wins, we don’t care,” she says, looking at her husband. “She has already won for us because she performs with this song.”
In the end, Snippe does not get the most points from the professional juries and the public; that’s Lisa Harms. She writes with her tearjerker the eleventh edition of the Drenthe song festival to her name.