Synopsis
André Hazes (1951-2004) was one of the most popular interpreters of the Dutch levenslied, a sentimental subgenre of pop music similar to the German schlager. For more than 20 years, he sang his hits to packed stadiums. For this documentary, filmmaker John Appel closely followed the singer for a number of months at the height of his fame. He attended performances and studio recordings, accompanied Hazes to the cramped house in Amsterdam where the singer spent his childhood and observed the man with his wife and two children in their spacious abode on the water. After all these years, Hazes still gets stage fright: he is not easily satisfied and not really self-confident. What should have been the high point in his career, a performance in the gigantic Plaza de Toros arena in the Spanish city of Benidorm, turns into disappointment: only a few hundred visitors show up for the show. The constant pressure takes its toll, and at a certain point, even Hazes’s third marriage is on the verge of collapse. It is clear that a big house is no guarantee for happiness, nor is the wall adorned with gold records. Ultimately, the lyrics of Hazes’s songs, which often deal with loneliness and unrequited love, ring true.