Bob Benny

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Cindy oh Cindy
  BE F 2 04/01/1957 (16 weeks)
Hou toch van mij
  BE F 4th 03/01/1959 (24 weeks)
Paola (Droomprinsesje uit het zuiden)
  BE F 7th 06/01/1959 (16 weeks)
Waar en tub
  BE F 3 06/01/1963 (24 weeks)
Avenues door jou
  BE F 5 11/01/1963 (12 weeks)
Bella Maria
  BE F 16 03/01/1964 (4 weeks)

Bob Benny (real name Emilius Wagemans ; born May 18, 1926 in Sint-Niklaas ; † March 29, 2011 in Beveren ) was a Belgian singer and musical performer . He was best known for his hit Waar en wanneer and his two-time participation in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Life

Beginnings

Wagemans began his career as a singer shortly after the end of World War II , when he performed regularly in a café in his hometown. In 1951 he sang for the National Instituut voor de Radio-omroep (NIR) and was allowed to appear more often on the radio show De antenne zingt . At the same time he recorded his first record entitled Mijn hart spreekt tot u . With a cover version of the hit Cindy oh Cindy (in Germany in the versions of Margot Eskens and Wolfgang Sauer a number one hit) he achieved his first hit in Belgium. The single reached second place in the Flemish sales charts, the highest chart position of his career. He also sang with the Metro Club Orchestra . At this time he took his stage name Bob Benny, which he borrowed from the name of the orchestra conductor. He had the first name Robert (from which he derived Bob ), he also played clarinet in the style of Benny Goodman , which was the reason for the surname Benny .

Participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Bob Benny represented Belgium twice in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1959 he took part in the Belgian preliminary round for the first time. He won with the song Hou toch van mij ahead of the only other participant, Jo Leemans. Previously, he had won one of the two semi-finals with nine participants each. At the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 he finished sixth among the eleven participants with nine points. He also published the song in German under the title Never Before . In the original version, the song reached number four on the Flemish sales charts. In 1961 Bob Benny again took part in the Belgian preliminary round. For September, gouden roos he received 60 points and won by a long way ahead of Jacques Raymond . At the Eurovision Song Contest in Cannes in 1961 , he was less successful: with only one point from Luxembourg , he and the Austrian representative Jimmy Makulis took last place. He also recorded a German version of his contribution under the title Rosen im September .

More Achievements

In 1963 the singer released his best-selling single, Waar en wanneer . The song was a Dutch adaptation of the composition Als flotter Geist by Johann Strauss . The song was also a small hit in the Netherlands, where it reached number 24 on the charts. In Belgium, where the song reached number three, the singer received his only gold record for it . His participation in the Eurovision Song Contest helped him to gain international fame. For six years he played in the musical My Friend Bunberry and the operetta Mask in Blue in Berlin . In his home country he played the role of Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady . In the late 1960s and early 1970s he performed several times in Berlin's Friedrichstadtpalast and was present on GDR radio and television. Bob Benny recorded the hit by GDR composer Ralf Petersen Blau ist die Nacht ( Blauw is de Nacht ). In Belgium the song was published by Polydor.

Private

In 2001, the then 75-year-old singer suffered a stroke . Due to his long hospital stay, he ran into financial distress in 2003. For this reason, on April 23, 2003, a benefit concert was held for him in Antwerp . The singer has been openly homosexual since 2001.

Discography (excerpt)

Singles

  • Mijn hart speaks dead u
  • Geef aan je vrouwtje
  • Cindy oh Cindy
  • Hou toch van mij
  • Paola
  • September, gouden roos
  • Waar en tub
  • Blauw is de night
  • Liev'ling
  • Mijn gitaar zal altijd zingen
  • Parel van Tahiti
  • Avenues door jou
  • Bella Maria

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Collin: Het Belgisch Hitboek: 45 jaar hits in Vlaanderen 1954-1999 , Antwerp 1999. Online source: BE (Flanders) .
  2. ↑ a b "Hou toch van mij" - Bob Benny ( Memento from November 10, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ diggiloo.net
  4. ↑ diggiloo.net
  5. ↑ diggiloo.net
  6. ↑ diggiloo.net
  7. ↑ dutchcharts.nl
  8. ↑ gayinfo.tripod.com
personal data
SURNAME Benny, Bob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wagemans, Emilius (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian singer and musical performer
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Sint-Niklaas
DATE OF DEATH March 29, 2011
Place of death Beveren