The successful formation De Toppers is again in a packed Arena tonight, but there is a bit of a gray veil above the festive spirit. “Not a minute of silence for Suzan & Freek please.”
The Toppers concert would not be the only concert in Amsterdam-Zuidoost tonight. Right next to the Johan Cruijff Arena is the Ziggo Dome and Suzan & Freek were still programmed there until the beginning of this week. They would, just like last week, give three concerts at the weekend. But they were abruptly canceled a few days ago.
Dome
Freek Rikkerink (32) has been told that he has metastatic lung cancer and will not live for long. Some fans have announced that they would go to the Ziggo Dome tonight, but the concert hall has called not to do that. It would also yield very uncomfortable scenes, among the hopping toppers fans.
The Ziggo Dome emphasizes at AT5 That there is no meeting organized by the concert hall itself. “The location remains closed on the canceled show days. This decision was taken in line with the Statement of Suzan & Freek, in which they ask for peace and privacy for themselves and their loved ones,” said a spokesperson.
Not a minute of silence
The toppers have placed a nice message for Suzan & Freek on their social media. “Shall they do something with it in their show?” Luuk Ik wonders in RTL Boulevard.
Colleague Rob Goossens: “Yes, and I also thought right away: please don’t keep a minute of silence or so, because he is luckily there. We don’t know what exactly they are going to do, but at least they will still dwell on the situation of Freek for the entire show.”
Black veil
Show connoisseur Bart Ettekoven thinks the toppers could not ignore it. He says in Shownieuws: “There is really a kind of black veil about the showbiz or something. You also just notice it in the rest of the Netherlands. The news has been so hard.”
He continues: “The contrast is also almost impossible. You immediately have that big, exuberant party with all that glitter, glamor and armor clothing. Party, hopping people on that one square near the Johan Cruijff Arena.”
Weird combination
Patty Brard thinks it is therefore better that the Suzan & Freek fans stay away. “You get a very strange combination of energies, I think too.”
Bart: “So it probably won’t happen, but you can’t stop people from doing that.”
What does supreme topper René Froger say of it himself? “We get up with it and also go to bed with it. They are very sweet colleagues. It is not going to be in cold clothes. That hurts.”
Surrealistic
René thinks it’s terrible for Suzan & Freek, he says in the show section on SBS 6. “We can’t talk about how much pain these people are involved in, but we are working on it. You also grab each other: guys, let’s realize what we have. It can happen to everyone and you have to think about that occasionally.”
“We are all four with our hearts with them. We give them all the strength and all love. It is surreal. It is terrible and difficult to talk about it to be honest.”