Jan Smit (singer)
Jan Smit is a Dutch singer, television host, and actor. Smit mostly sings songs in the Dutch language, in a genre known as palingsound. In addition to his solo career, in 2015 Smit joined the schlager trio Klubbb3, and in 2017 The Toppers. As a TV presenter, he has worked on programs like the Beste Zangers and Sterren Muziekfeest op het Plein Since 1999, Smit has been serving as an ambassador for the SOS Children's Villages.
Career
1996–2004: International success as Jantje Smit
Jantje Smit began his music career in Volendam where he sang in a boys' choir called De Zangertjes van Volendam. Smit was discovered at the age of ten, when the famous Dutch band BZN asked him to participate in a duet with one of their lead singers, Carola Smit. They recorded the song Mama which was very successful.Because of this success, he was asked to record a solo song, which was produced by three members of BZN, titled Ik Zing Dit Lied Voor Jou Alleen. The song entered the Dutch charts at number one, something that had never before happened in the history of the Dutch Charts. In the following two years, Jantje Smit had five more hits including Pappie, Waar Blijf Je Nou. All songs were written by BZN members Jan Keizer, Jack Veerman and Jan Tuijp.
Smit was also able to achieve success outside of the Netherlands, in Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and France. For a while Smit focused on and performed more often in Germany, where working legislation for minors was less strict, therefore allowing him to perform more. In the Netherlands minors can only perform a couple of times a year. While performing in Germany, he became one of the best-selling Dutch acts abroad. He released ten records sung in German. In 2001 Smit, BZN and their producers received the Exportprijs for being the bestselling Dutch artists abroad.
2005: Just Jan Smit
In 2005 Smit changed his stage name from Jantje Smit to Jan Smit. Starting on 25 March 2005, he appeared in his own reality show Gewoon Jan Smit, which was a reality TV show and followed his everyday life. Later that year, the show won the ''Gouden Televizier-Ring''2007: Vocal problems
In mid-October it was announced that Smit could not perform at least until the end of November. He had health issue with his vocal cords. All performances were cancelled until 29 November. Because of his health issues, Smit missed his scheduled performances at Symphonica in Rosso and the TMF Awards, but he did appear to receive the award for best Dutch pop-act at this event. In November Smit underwent a surgery, and he was not allowed to sing for half a year. This meant that both his work as a presenter for TROS pocket and his new album were put on hold. The tour Jasn Smit komt naar je toe was also rescheduled.After eight months out of the public eye, Smit made his comeback at the Museumpleinconcert on Koninginnedag in 2008.
2008–2015: The Bombardment and 15th anniversary
On 14 July 2008 Smit released his single Stilte in de Storm which entered the Single Top 100 at the top spot. It was his seventh number-one song. In the fall of 2008 he was featured in a new season of Jan Smit, de Zomer Voorbij, and was chosen as team captain in the program Te Leuk Om Waar Te Zijn. On 8 November 2008, Als je Lacht was released and became his 8th number 1 hit in the Netherlands was. On 28 February 2009 his 9th number 1 hit was Je Naar in de Sterren.Although Smit's popularity kept growing in The Netherlands, his popularity in Germany waned. Smit blamed this on the fact that the German audience prefers true Schlager music or pop music, while Smit's style is something in between, which the Germans were not keen on. In the meantime, Smith stopped presenting television programs. In July 2009 he released a duet with Surinamese singer Damaru titled Mi Rowsu , released to benefit SOS Children's Villages. The song reached the number one spot in both The Netherlands as well as Suriname.
On 3 September 2009 Smit presented for the TROS the first episode of the program Ik Weet Wat Jij Deed. In addition, the third season of Jan Smit, de Zomer Voorbij premiered on 20 September 2009. This time the series was shot in Italy. Smit's next single Leef Nu Het Kan entered the Single Top 100 at the number one spot on 6 March 2010. After The Beatles and Marco Borsato, Smit is the artist that has been the longest at number 1 in The Netherlands in the history of the weekly charts. In April 2010, Smit was elected to be the Dutch mascot for Amarula. Smit's single Terug in de Tijd of his album Leef entered the charts on 19 June 2010 and reached the second position a week later, its highest position. His next song, Zie Wel Hoe Ik Thuis Kom reached number one on 25 September 2010 in the Dutch Single Top 100. On 15 January 2011 his song Niemand Zo Trots Als Wij entered the charts at number one. On 30 September 2011 Smit released Hou Je Dan Nog Steeds Van Mijn and a month later the collection 15 Jaar Hits. The single again reached the highest position in the Top 100 after just one week. During the RTL-4 program Koffietijd Smit received a gold record for selling 10,000 copies. Eddy Veerman released a biography, titled Het Geheim van de Smit.
From 2011, he and Cornald Maas commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the AVROTROS.
In 2012 Jan Smit celebrated his 15th anniversary of being in show business. In August, he released the album Vrienden, which was awarded a platinum record. Smit also had three number one hits in 2012: 1. Echte Vrienden, a duet with Gerard Joling, 2. the song Altijd Naar and 3. Sla Je Armen Om Me Heen, a duet with Roos van Erkel. As part of the anniversary celebration Smit performed five concerts in Rotterdam Ahoy, with guest appearances by Gerard Joling, Yes-R, Carola Smit and Damaru. In 2012 a biography was published chronicling Jan Smit's life. Towards the end of 2012 he starred in the film Het Bombardement. On the day the film was released both critics and audiences panned the movie, but it was noted that Smits acting debut "was the least of the problems of the whole movie". However, since more than one hundred thousand people went to see the film in the cinema it still managed to be awarded with a golden film status.
Since 2012 Smit has been the presenter of De Beste Zangers van Nederland. Each episode features a central singer, whom selects songs for other participants to sing. The featured singers does not perform themselves, but instead judges the other singers. On 4 June 2016 there was a special edition of the program, the featured guest was not one of the singers, but Smit himself. This episode was a tribute to Jan Smit because he was celebrating his 20-year anniversary of being in show business. In 2012 Smit launched the record label Vosound Records together with Jaap Buijs. Other artists on the label are Smit's sister Monique Smit, Tim Douwsma and Gerard Joling. Additionally in 2012 Smit was awarded the TrosKompas Oeuvre Award.
At the end of February 2013 Smit published the DVD and double CD and DVD Live in Ahoy, Jubilee Concert 2012. On 17 March 2013 Jan returned to German television after a seven-year absence. In the ARD program Das Frühlingsfest der 100,000 Blüten Smit presented his single "Bleiben wie du bist". After the TV appearance the single was available to download for free download for 48 hours. After six minutes, the site crashed due to the amount of requests. A list of hit songs called "Volendammer Top 1000" was created by a large number of local television and radio stations in Northern Holland, in which Smit had more than 70 entries.
As in 2011, Smith had three nights at the Amsterdam Arena during Toppers in Concert 2013. In 2014, Smith played a supporting role in Cops Maastricht.
In 2015 Jaap Buijs died. Because of this Smit skipped a season of hit show De Zomer Voorbij as well as presenting Muziekfeest of het Plein in Heerenveen which instead was presented by Frans Duijts since this episode was recorded in the week Jaap Buijs died and Jan Smit did not consider it appropriate to stand on a square full of people in party-mode. In November 2015 Smit released a new Christmas album. The album titled Kerst Voor Iedereen contains eight Christmas classics and four new Christmas songs.