Anouk - Urban Solitude
Written by: Moti Kupfer
Release date - 09.11.1999
Anouk writes her song lyrics in Dutch, and then translates them into English. She grew up on blues singers, inspired by her mother, who was a blues singer herself; she added her gold teeth inspired by the rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard; and believe it or not, the object of her fantasy in the late 1990s was the veteran singer Tom Waits.
"Tom Waits is so cool," Anouk gushed, "he can captivate the audience with his stories." Anouk, who saw in Waits a gifted storyteller, took the fantasy one step further and wrote a song about him, "Tom Waits", which came out on her second album, "Urban Solitude", on November 9, 1999.
"The song is a fantasy about riding into the sunset with Tom Waits. I would love to know how Tom will react to it. I would have been happy if someone wrote a song about me, maybe Tom will star in one of my videos," says Anouk, full of confidence.
Anouk Teeuwe was born in April 1975 in The Hague. From a young age Anouk was interested in music. As a teenager she used drugs, and eventually lived in several youth care homes after running away from her family at the age of fourteen.
At the beginning of her career, at the age of 15, she sang at weddings and parties as part of the band "Shotgun Wedding". She began studying at the Rotterdam Conservatory in 1994, but dropped out two years later.
Edwin Jansen, her ex-husband, introduced Anouk to Barry Hay, a musician and member of the Dutch rock band "Golden Earring". Hay believed in Anouk's talent and suggested that she write some songs. One of those songs was "Mood Indigo", written together with George Kooymans (also a member of "Golden Earring"), which became Anouk's first single.
After meeting Bart van Veen, the two began writing songs together. On September 5, 1997, Anouk released her second single, "Nobody's Wife". The single stayed at the top of the Dutch chart for several weeks. Her debut album, "Together Alone", also became a big success.
After the great breakthrough with her debut album, Anouk released the follow-up album, "Urban Solitude", which opens with the song "In The Sand", written out of great frustration over a relationship that failed despite all the effort she put in.
The album finds Anouk blending ska on the first single, "R U Kiddin' Me", and hip-hop and funk on songs such as "The Dark" and "Don't". Alongside these three singles, the album included another single, "Michel", which became one of the album's most successful singles. Anouk wrote "Michel" about a failed teenage love from when she was 14.
She regards the two years at the Rotterdam Conservatory as a significant period that gave her the foundation for her career as a singer. In general, it seems that Anouk is an atmosphere singer: she needs her free environment in order to find inspiration for writing songs, which she presents in her unique way, sometimes full of aggression and sometimes gentle and tender.
As for the album's name, "Urban Solitude", Anouk is referring to New York City.
"That's the feeling I always have when I arrive in New York and drive over the Brooklyn Bridge. Then I always feel lonely and small."
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music
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