It’s like a blind pilot or a butcher with poor hand-eye coordination: a toreador with a broken leg. Inconvenient and life threatening. Yet that is exactly what Wilbert Pigmans experiences. The Bossche singer, who scored a monster hit in 2020 with De Toreador, went through his lower leg last Monday. And that just before Carnival. “The timing is certainly not good.”
It went wrong at record label Berk Music in Eindhoven, where Pigmans was allowed to collect a platinum award that belongs to the 17.5 million streams of De Toreador on Spotify. “I was so happy to see everyone again and happy with the award that I jumped for joy. When I landed I heard a crash and I was suddenly on the ground.”
And so panic in the tent, because carnival. That same afternoon, his girlfriend took him to the Catharina Hospital. “When I heard a nurse tell the doctor not to tell me the news just yet, I knew enough. Then I felt him hang for a while.”
The diagnosis is a broken lower leg. The result is a long, painful night on an empty stomach because of the upcoming surgery under anesthesia. But the Eindhoven auxiliaries from the Catharina Hospital are pulling out all the stops and the Bossche singer already went under the knife on Tuesday afternoon. Around that time, all the nursing staff of the department already knew which famous Brabanter occupied one of the beds.
And the unwanted hospital visit is ultimately not at all disappointing. “At the end of the afternoon I was of course still singing for those nurses”, Wilbert laughs.
Pigmans is then allowed to go home with a pin in his lower leg ‘to make me feel bad’ and with the announcement that he is mobile enough to stand. overjoyed. “That pin ensures that I can still stand on the podium. Do what makes me happy. To sing. Entertain the people. Finally.”
Finally. That high word is out. Because it has not been easy for the singer in recent years. The resounding success of De Toreador is immediately followed by the start of the corona crisis. In one fell swoop 160 booked performances are flushed down the toilet.
“Then I did ask myself if there was a curse on it. If those performances had gone through, all my dreams would have come true. Still, it was mentally tougher. My hobby was taken away from me and in a way I had no life because of it.”
The February 15 press conference changed everything. The news that the corona measures are largely being lifted immediately set Pigmans’ heart ablaze. “I almost shot through the roof. I can finally continue where it suddenly left off.”
The successful singer just wants to say: that broken lower leg can still be added. He hadn’t let anything or anyone stop him anyway. Singing and entertaining, starting with 3 Hour Vurraf this Friday.
“Goosebumps just thinking about it. I’m really looking forward to it. I have 21 bookings with Carnival and always start and end with De Toreador, so you will hear it 42 times. If necessary, carried by three security guests on a stretcher.”
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Watch here again Wilbert’s performance during 3 Uurkes Vurraf in 2020.