Dave (singer)

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Dave (2012)

Dave , also Dave Levenbach ; actually Wouter Otto Levenbach (born May 4, 1944 in Amsterdam ) is a Dutch singer and television presenter, who had great success especially in the 1970s in France , where he has lived since the mid-1960s. Two of his albums and one single became number one hits in France. His biggest hit outside of France was Dansez maintenant , a version of Glenn Miller's classic Moonlight Serenade with French lyrics . The adaptation was a number one hit in the Netherlands and Belgium in 1975 and was also published in a German-language version as "Wie schön dich zu seh'n".

biography

Dave comes from a Jewish family who converted to Calvinism. His father was the English language professor Hans Otto Levenbach. Wouter Levenbach began his career at the age of twenty as the front man of the combo Dave Rich & the Millionaires , with whom he recorded a single in 1964; He kept the first name of Dave Rich as a stage name. In 1965 he left the Netherlands and worked as a singer in bars and restaurants in Saint-Tropez . In 1968 he got a record deal after meeting the music producer Eddie Barclay . Two years later he took part in the Dutch preliminary round for the Grand Prix de la Chanson and came third with the song Niets gaat zo snel . Later that year he had a hit with a Dutch-language version of Nathalie . From 1971 he played in the musical Godspell .

In 1974 he got a contract with CBS . Trop beau , a French version of the Rubettes hit Sugar Baby Love , became a hit in France, and Vanina , an adaptation of the Del Shannon hit Runaway , had his first number one hit in France in January 1975 . Single hits like Mon coeur est malade , Dansez maintenant and Du côté de chez Swann followed, and in September 1976 his LP conquered Tant qu'il y aura , the number-one position in the album charts; he repeated this two years later in December 1978 with the LP Pour que tu me comprennes . In 1975 and 1982 he gave sold-out concerts at the Olympia . At the beginning of the 1980s he made his first excursions into the film and television business, but there were no further successes.

It wasn't until the early 1990s that Dave made a comeback with new music recordings, and from the mid-1990s began his career on French television; first together with Sheila and the following year alone he presented the show Salut les chouchous on TF1 . He reported on the wedding of the Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander for French television and commented on the Eurovision Song Contest for France 3 in 2000 and 2001 and on the broadcast of Domino Day for TF1 .

In 1997 he published his autobiography Du côté de chez moi , in 2003 the book Soit dit en passant ; in both works he addresses his homosexuality; he lives with the songwriter Patrick Loiseau . In 2006 he released the album Tout le plaisir a été pour moi under the name Dave Levenbach . From 2010 to 2013 he was on the jury of the casting show La France a un incroyable talent (French version of Das Supertalent ). Since 2014 he has presented his own weekly program Du côté de chez Dave on the public broadcaster France 3 .

In April 2015 Levenbach was made a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau .

Discography (selection)

Dave (1969)

Singles

  • 1968: Si je chante
  • 1969: Niets gaat zo snel
  • 1969: Nathalie (# 29 / NL )
  • 1974: Trop beau
  • 1974: Vanina (# 1 / FR)
  • 1975: Mon cœur est malade
  • 1975: Dansez maintenant (# 1 / NL, # 1 / BE)
  • 1975: How nice to see you
  • 1976: Du côte de chez Swann (# 9 / NL)
  • 1976: Ophélie
  • 1979: Allo Elisa
  • 1980: Maria Magdalena
  • 1990: De eerste keer deed nog pijn (duet with Anny Schilder )

Albums

  • 1976: Tant qu'il y aura (# 1 / FR)
  • 1979: Pour que tu me comprennes (# 1 / FR)
  • 2004: Doux Tam Tam
  • 2006: Tout le plaisir a été pour moi (as Dave Levenbach )
  • 2011: Blue-Eyed Soul!
  • 2019: Souviens-toi d'aimer

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Song facts with audio sample at hitparade.ch
  2. ↑ Song facts with audio sample at hitparade.ch
  3. ^ "  Music-Hall , Jean-Pierre Thiollet a vu Dave, l'homme qui vend du rêve ...", Le Quotidien de Paris , 20-05-1982 (L'Olympia, 1982).
  4. ↑ Dave's biography ( Dutch ) muziekencyclopedie.nl. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  5. ↑ Dave arrête La France a un incroyable talent
  6. ↑ Du côté de chez Dave ( Memento of the original from August 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Homepage of the broadcast  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / culturebox.francetvinfo.fr
  7. ↑ Nederlandse zanger Dave in Parijs geridderd , De Telegraaf from April 17, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Dave
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Levenbach, Wouter Otto (maiden name); Rich, Dave (first stage name); Levenbach, Dave
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch pop singer
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam