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Anouk
Anouk at a Eurovision 2013 press conference.
Background information
Birth name	Anouk Teeuwe
Born	(1975-04-08) 8 April 1975 (age 43) The Hague, Netherlands
Genres	Alternative rock pop rock post-grunge R&B soul
Occupation(s)	Musician
Years active	1996–present
Labels	Goldilox, EMI, Dino
Website	anouk.com

Anouk Teeuwe (Dutch pronunciation: [aːˈnuk ˈteːuʋə]; born 8 April 1975), professionally known by the mononym Anouk, is a Dutch singer-songwriter and record producer. After her breakthrough in 1997 with the single "Nobody's Wife", she had numerous hit singles in the Dutch and Belgian charts, such as "R U Kiddin' Me", "Michel", "Girl", "Lost", "Modern World", "Three Days in a Row", and "Woman".

Anouk has released eleven studio albums to date, the most recent one being Fake It Till We Die, released on 21 October 2016. She represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden, with the song "Birds". Her song made it to the final – the first since 2004 for the Netherlands; and finished 9th with 114 points.^[1]

Biography

1970s to 2000s: Beginnings and breakthrough

Anouk at Festival Mundial in 2008

Anouk Teeuwe was born on 8 April 1975, in The Hague, Netherlands. As a teenager, she experimented with drugs and ended up living in several care homes after she ran away from her family at the age of fourteen. Anouk's interest in music was triggered through her mother, who was a blues singer. Anouk gave her first performance at fifteen and sang at weddings and parties with the band Shotgun Wedding. She started attending the Rotterdam Conservatory in 1994 but dropped out two years later. In the same period, her then-husband and manager Edwin Jansen introduced Anouk to Golden Earring frontman Barry Hay. Hay believed her to have talent and offered to write some songs for her. One of those songs was "Mood Indigo"; written in collaboration with fellow Golden Earring member George Kooymans.

After she met Bart van Veen, her co-writer, the pair wrote a few songs. On 5 September 1997, she released her second single, "Nobody's Wife", which remained at the top of the Dutch music charts for a number of weeks and was also a hit in Norway and Sweden. Her debut album Together Alone turned out to be a huge success. In 1998, Anouk won two awards from Dutch music channel TMF in addition to an Edison Award. During the summer, she played at various festivals. Her second album Urban Solitude was released in November 1999, and included the single "R U Kiddin' Me". This song reached the Dutch Top 100. Shortly afterwards, Anouk went to the United States to pursue a record deal. Negotiations with her American label (Sony) ended badly, causing her to return to the Netherlands without a deal. She released a new song, "Don't", and began touring the Netherlands in February 2001.

Anouk at Lowlands festival in 2006

In March 2001, she released another album, Lost Tracks, which contained acoustic versions and B-sides from older songs, and various duets with K's Choice singer Sarah Bettens and The Anonymous Mis. She was awarded the Popprijs award in 2001. In November 2002, the album Graduated Fool was released. This is the heaviest rock album in Anouk's career so far.
Anouk received a Golden Harp in 2003. The following full-length release is called Hotel New York (2004) and yielded a total of four singles: "Girl", "Lost", "Jerusalem" and "One Word". In 2006 she won the 3FM award for best Dutch female singer.^[2] In 2007, Anouk released Who's Your Momma, recorded with producer Glen Ballard. The first single, "Good God" was a success,^[3] and became a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008.^[4] In 2009 she released her album For Bitter or Worse. The song "Three Days in a Row" reached the first place in the Dutch charts.

2010s: Eurovision Song Contest participation

Anouk at the dress rehearsal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Anouk's album To Get Her Together was released in the Netherlands in May 2011. On 28 February 2011 Anouk placed one of the new tracks on YouTube named "Killer Bee". The first single of the album is called "Down & Dirty" and came out in April. On 27 June, Anouk released her single "I'm a Cliché". On 17 September 2011 "Save Me" was released as third single from the album. The fourth single is "What Have You Done".
Anouk performed at the GelreDome in Arnhem for her To Get Her Together Tour on 8 and 11 March 2012.

Anouk first revealed taking part in the festival on Facebook on 17 October 2012, after negotiations with broadcaster TROS. Her song was officially revealed on 11 March 2013. Anouk performed "Birds" in the first semi-final on 14 May 2013, where she progressed to the final on 18 May 2013. Anouk reached the 9th place at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden on 18 May 2013 with her song "Birds".^[5] The Dutch broadly perceived her result to be a major achievement, as it was the best ranking for the Netherlands in 14 years and the first time in 9 years that any Dutch artist even made it to the finals.^[6]
Anouk wrote the 2015 Dutch entry called "Walk Along", performed by Trijntje Oosterhuis along with Swedish songwriter Tobias Karlsson.^[7]

In 2015, Anouk was a coach on the sixth season of the reality singing competition show The Voice of Holland. In 2016, Anouk released two albums: Queen For A Day, which included the lead single "Run Away Together", in March and Fake It Till We Die in late October.

Musical style

Anouk's musical style has been described as a combination of Joan Osborne, Melissa Etheridge and Alanis Morissette.^[8] She is known for explosive rock songs like "Nobody's Wife" and "R U Kiddin' Me", but has also made small and fragile songs like "Lost" and "Michel". In addition to her pop/rock sound she also experiments with soul, funk and hip hop.

Personal life

Anouk was married to her manager Edwin Jansen until 1998. She married Remon Stotijn (aka The Anonymous Mis), frontman of the reggae/rap band Postmen, on 16 March 2004. Stotijn is the father of three of her children; son Benjahmin Kingsley (b. 18 April 2002), son Elijah Jeramiah (b. 5 December 2003) and daughter Phoenix Ray (b. 3 June 2005). In May 2008, Anouk and Remon announced a "harmonious" mutual separation.^[9] In 2010 Anouk gave birth to her fourth child, a son named Jesiah Dox. In March 2014, Anouk announced that she was pregnant with her fifth child. Her son Sion Jethro was born in June 2014.^[10] In January 2016 Anouk announced she was pregnant with her 6th child.^[11] In June 2016, she gave birth to a baby girl, Jelizah Rose, with her current partner, mixed martial artist and former basketball player Dominique Schemmekes.^[12]

Discography

• 
  Together Alone (1997)


• 
  Urban Solitude (1999)


• 
  Graduated Fool (2002)


• 
  Hotel New York (2004)


• 
  Who's Your Momma? (2007)


• 
  For Bitter or Worse (2009)


• 
  To Get Her Together (2011)


• 
  Sad Singalong Songs (2013)


• 
  Paradise and Back Again (2014)


• 
  Queen for a Day (2016)


• 
  Fake It Till We Die (2016)

Awards and nominations

Dutch TMF Awards

In 2006, Dutch singer Marco Borsato joined Anouk in announcing their withdrawal from future TMF Awards-nominations. "Every year the same faces can get boring".

Edison Awards

3FM Radio Awards

Belgian TMF Awards

MTV Europe Music Awards

Other Awards

• Noorderslag Popprijs 2001^[31]
  


• 
  Golden Harp 2003^[32]
  


• Two medals (best female and single international "Girl") on Humo's Pop Poll 2005 Belgium^{[citation needed]}
  


• Duiveltje 2005 (best female singer)^[33]
  

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anouk.

• 
  Official website
  


• 
  Anouk at AllMusic