Vader Abraham

Pierre Kartner as Vader Abraham (2007)

Vader Abraham (real name Petrus Antonius Laurentius "Pierre" Kartner ; born April 11, 1935 in Elst ) is a Dutch singer, composer , lyricist and producer . He is married and has a son.

Kartner is the composer of the hit hit In 't kleine café aan de haven ( "The small bar" or "The small beisl" ), but became best known with the song of the Smurfs .

Life

Pierre Kartner was born at Elst station as the son of the station master. He grew up with two brothers and a sister. At the age of eight he took part in a singing competition and won first prize. He taught himself to play the guitar and also learned the piano and electric bass .

After finishing school, Kartner first trained as a pastry chef , then he joined the military. Together with Jan van Toren and Jaap Goedèl, he founded a trio called “The Headlines”, later “The Lettersets”. Kartner wrote most of the group’s texts himself. The group was soon able to record their first records and made various television appearances. Nevertheless, the group soon separated again.

Musical career until 1970

After his marriage, Kartner ran a food stand with his wife before they moved to Antwerp , where Kartner worked in a confectionery factory. After moving to Lichtaart again , the family again ran a food stand and a gas station. Since Kartner was also able to work for a record company, he finally had the opportunity to publish his first solo album Pierre: Ik wil nog even met je praten ("Pierre: I just want to talk to you"). He only called himself "Pierre". The album was not a success. The other publications could not prevail either, so that in 1967 the family moved back to the Netherlands, to the city of Breda , where they kept themselves afloat with odd jobs. In the early 1970s, Pierre Kartner presented programs on the pirate station Radio Veronica .

Then I got my first successes as a singer. The publication of the title Bij Lily Marleen kijk je zomaar door haar kanten bloesje heen (“With Lily Marleen you just look through her lace blouse”) under the name “Lord Wanhoop” brought Kartner the breakthrough. He then worked as a producer of various singers and published alone or with others under different names (for example "Pierre Kartner", "Rood-Wit-Blauw Trio", "De Aardmannetjes", "Los Vastos", "Pierre & zijn Pietjes", "Nol en Marie" and "De Uilen", "Duo X") several singles , of which the one with the "Duo X" was very successful.

Since the success of Vader Abraham

For a carnival number Kartner wrote the title Vader Abraham had zeven zonen ("Father Abraham had seven sons"). Since there was no interpreter for this song, Kartner finally sang the song himself. He was supposed to dress up like the biblical figure Abraham . This performance brought success. From then on, Vader Abraham published numerous titles under the new pseudonym. In 1971 he sang the duet Zou het erg zijn ("Would it be bad?", Later known as "What will be, the Smurf asks") with 13-year-old child star Wilma Landkroon , which became very successful (number 1 in the Dutch charts ). Kartner also worked as a background voice on Landkroon's anti-war song Ik heb een vraag ("I have a question") and on her hit Geloof, hoop en rande ("Faith, hope and love").

Then Pierre Kartner made a name for himself as a lyricist, composer and producer. He wrote the Dutch contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1973 . De oude muziekant ("The Old Musician"), sung by Ben Cramer, came in 14th. In 1976 he had his international breakthrough. His song In 't kleine café aan de haven ("In the small café on the harbor") was a great success as a singer in the Netherlands. The German recording, text by Michael Kunze , Die kleine Kneipe was Peter Alexander 's greatest success. In French, the song was recorded by Joe Dassin and Mireille Mathieu , with Joe Dassin's version becoming a # 1 hit in France , Canada , New Zealand and Australia . Davey Arthur and the Fureys recorded the song in English. Today there are almost 200 recordings of this song.

In 1977 Kartner composed and published 't Smurfenlied ("The Song of the Smurfs "), in which he had sung all the texts himself and then mixed them in at different speeds. This created the effect of an interaction between himself as the front man and a Smurf choir. This song became the greatest success as a singer for Vader Abraham in 1978. He took first place in the ZDF hit parade six times . The follow-up title What will be, the Smurf asks , came in first. In the disco with Ilja Richter he was represented with the titles Bier, Bier, Smurfs-Bier (1980) and Willi, Willi (1981).

The long-playing record In Smurfenland ("In the Land of the Smurfs"), published below, also sold very well. Vader Abraham recorded “The Smurfs Song” in Dutch, German, French, English, Spanish and Japanese. The song has won several gold records . Cover versions were released in Scandinavia and “The Smurfs Song” became a hit in numerous countries around the world. Vader Abraham then gave concerts all over the world. He had one of his biggest appearances in Mexico .

Walk of Fame, Rotterdam

Vader Abraham continued to be successful as a lyricist, composer and producer in the 1980s and 1990s. Today he mostly writes for other artists, but continues to work as a singer.

As an author, Kartner wrote titles for the following artists, among others: Ireen Sheer (I have a headache this evening), Nana Mouskouri (Outside the door), Elfi Graf (It's most beautiful at home), Heino (Mary Rose, So'n older Schunkelwalzer), Peter Orloff (between church and pub) . Eberhard Hertel also had a great success with the song Little Fish Become Big .

Vader Abraham wrote the theme song for the Finnish-Japanese cartoon series Moomins from 1990, the 52 episodes of which were shown in Germany by ZDF .

In 2006 a new version of The Smurfs Song was released in 2006 under the name “Vader Abraham feat. Attention-X ". However, it failed to make it onto the charts.

For the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 he wrote the Dutch contribution Ik ben ran (Sha-la-lie) , which will be interpreted by Sieneke .

Proximity to right-wing populism

Pierre Kartner did not shy away from being close to right-wing populist politicians. With Hendrik Koekoek (left) from the Boerenpartij , he recorded a single in 1974 that was awarded a gold record.

Pierre Kartner has repeatedly recorded songs with right-wing populist content. After the 1973 oil crisis, he recorded a single with the right-wing populist politician Hendrik Koekoek : Den Uyl is in den olie , which refers to the social democratic Prime Minister Joop den Uyl and “the Arabs”. In it, Koekoek speaks individual sentences such as "Joop gets one on the lid".

For the 1975 carnival he published Wat doen we met the Arabians here , to the tune of Singing hi hi jippie jippie jee . It says: “What are we doing with the Arabs here? / Because you can't trust them / With our beautiful women. ”The song was taken off the market. It fits into a number of comparable songs from the same period.

In 1976, Het leger der werklozen (The Army of the Unemployed) followed. According to the text, the unemployed lie on roses and sit in the pub. In 2002 he recorded the song with right-wing populist Pim Fortuyn, who was later murdered : Wimmetje gaat, Pimmetje komt .

Honors

Kartner received 128 gold records as a composer and 57 gold and diamond records with his Smurfs.

In Germany he also received the Bronze Lion from Radio Luxemburg in 1978 and the Golden Europe in 1979 .

Discography

→ Main article : Vader Abraham / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks / months, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks / months, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	NL
1973	Vader Abraham en Zijn Goede Zonen	-	-	-	-	NL7 (2 weeks) NL	as Vader Abraham en Zijn Goede Zonen
1976	As ever wilt like ik ben	-	-	-	-	NL20 (1 week) NL
1977	In Smurfenland	-	-	-	-	NL1 (23 weeks) NL
1978	Vader Abraham in the land of the Smurfs	DE3 platinum (34 weeks)DE	AT3 (8 months) AT	-	-	-	German version of In Smurfenland
	Father Abraham in Smurfland	-	-	-	UK19th gold (11 weeks)UK	-	English version of In Smurfenland
1979	Kerstfeest met Vader Abraham	-	-	-	-	NL20 (3 weeks) NL
1981	Vader Abraham en de wonderlijke Wuppie wereld	-	-	-	-	NL24 (7 weeks) NL
1990	Together forever	-	-	-	-	NL36 (13 weeks) NL	as Vader Abraham en De Smurfen
1993	Vader Abraham Totaal	-	-	-	-	NL58 (10 weeks) NL
1994	Lach naar de clouds	-	-	-	-	NL59 (5 weeks) NL	as Pierre Kartner

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

swell

1. ^ Paul van der Steen: What do we do with the Arabians? In: Trouw. October 30, 2013, accessed February 4, 2017 (Dutch). 
2. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK NL Singles1 NL Singles2 NL Albums

Web links

Commons : Vader Abraham  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Pierre Kartner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website