Great discovery by Tess from Het Chanson Offensief: Dutch trio Mannekijn.
Two of the girls, Oukje and Camilla got to know each other via The Kyteman Orchestra (a big group of musicians led by producer Colin ‘Kyteman’ Benders, playing music bordering on jazz, impro, hip hop and even classical), pianist Vera joined later. Oukje sang in various langauges during her classical training, French strikes her as a very poetic language and one that bridges the gap between the days of yore and the modern age.
Mannekijn (Old Dutch word for ‘Little man’) entered the Concours the la Chanson competition in Holland, and sang a version of La Chanson de Vieux Amants (Brel) and a great rework of Stromae’s Papaoutai, shown below. Love those sweeping strings, it’s just as rousing as the original version.
As I understand it from the little interview, Mannekijn wants to sing in Dutch, not in French, but this version will stay on the setlist for a while.
