This is the Voice….of Groningen!

Talent shows have always been enormously popular in the Netherlands. At least five versions of Idols and X-Factor passed by on television. The past few weeks, Groningen has been obsessed with a completely new talent show: The Voice of Holland. And when there are also two participants from the North of the Netherlands participating, you can imagine no one would like to miss out on this! However, a few students from the study programme Art, Culture and Media from the University of Groningen thought they could rebuild a talent show such as the Voice of Holland easily. Who needs television when you can see talents perform live in one of the biggest student city in the Netherlands? And so Fraternity Feud got organised…

During the event, bands from the student associations Unitas, Cleopatra, Dizkartes, Vindicat en Albertus competed against each other to win the title ‘’Best student band of Groningen’’ and a price on the Gideon festival. An exciting battle started! The jury consisted out of DJ Harde Baas, professor in pop music Kristin McGee, old Rector Magnificus Frans Zwarts of the University of Groningen and the mayor of the night of Groningen Chris Garrit. The bands had to battle against each other and prove themselves in front of the judge. You probably can imagine that every student association brought they’re own group of supports, which meant that Huize Maas was filled with enthusiastic and hyperactive students, making it even harder for the jury to make a decision! With a great atmosphere and even better music, the only thing everyone was waiting for was a final winner of the evening…
And so the jury made a decision: the Monkey Fingers band from A.S.V. Dizkartes was chosen as best band of the evening, and can now brag with the title ‘’Best student band of Groningen’’ for an entire year!

As you are now aware that Groningen doesn’t lack in student bands, we even have some ambitious students that want to show they’re talent to an even larger audience. The eighteen years old Iris Kroes, communication student at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences participated in the television show The Voice of Holland. Iris started playing harp at the age of 8 and sings from the moment she could speak. Although she enjoys her study programme, her biggest dream is to become a singer. The performance of Iris was immediately popular with the jury of The Voice; after a few moments they already pushed the button. Iris eventually made it to the finals, where she had to compete against four other talented candidates. Eventually, the jury made a final decision…Iris is the winner of The Voice! With a record deal in her pocket, nothing will be in her way anymore to start a singing carreer!

Are you also into music and would like to do develop your talent in Groningen? Don’t worry; Groningen has lots of options when it comes to music! Young bands are always popular in Groningen, which is proved by the success of Fraternity Freud.
For a fun evening out with good music, Simplon, a venue where lots of new local talents perform, is the perfect location to go for!

And for those of you that are a little less musical; you can always decide to visit a performance of one of the many local bands. And who knows, you might even pop into Iris when you come to Groningen!
 
By: Petra Vledder