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Geboren in 1945 als Christiane Leenaerts. Haar carrière begon in 1965 bij het lokale bandje "The Adams".
Lees er meer over in de :
Showbizz Verhalen.
Ann werd verliefd op Marc Hoyois, één van de bandleden (zoon
van een Belgische moeder en een Zwitserse vader), waarmee ze in het
huwelijk trad. Na Milo Decoster (ook manager van Liliane) werd Robert
Bylois (ook manager van Adamo) dan haar manager. De laatste jaren van
haar leven had ze voortdurend buikpijn, rugklachten en last van de nieren.
Tot werd vastgesteld dat ze aan kanker leed. Ze stierf op 7 augustus 1984 in het UZ van Jette.
Net voor haar dood nam ze nog een 45t op : "Waarom" (singlehoes nr.
03
hieronder in de single collectie).
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IN ENGLISH
Christiane Leenaerts (22/09/1945 - 07/08/1984), born in Antwerp, started singing in 1965 with the orchestra 'The Adams'
much to her parents demise. Her friend and later husband Marc Hoyois was hitting the drums in the orchestra. A first
record ‘Kussen onder de regenboog’ went by unnoticed. A cooperation with manager Milo de Coster (also manager of Liliane
Saint-Pierre) also didn't work out well. She then met manager Robert Bylois, who advised her to change her name.
She hustled her first name into Ann Christy. She took on a French repertoire and went on tour with Adamo trough Belgium
and France. A first small hit was ‘Le garçon qui j’aimais’ with which she won the Wallonian contest ‘Camera d’argent’.
To tone her stage-act she started to work with fashion designer Ann Salens who created her hippy typed wardrobe.
The Flemish audience discovered her in 1968 when she participated in the 'Knokke Cup', the international song contest
at the Belgian Coast town. It was the first time the Belgian squad (with also Jacques Raymond, Lily Castel and Nicole
Josy) won that trophy.
She tried to enter the Eurovision Songcontest for Belgium in 1970 (for RTBF) and 1971 (for BRT) with the song
‘Dag vreemde man’ (Hello strange man), but she was not chosen. However, in 1975 she finally succeeded and represented
Belgium with the slow song ‘Gelukkig zijn’ (released in English as ‘Could this be happiness’ in French as ‘L'histoire
du bonheur’). Although this song was initially intended for a commercial about jeans, she finished fourteenth. After
the Eurovision disappointment she went on to perform in the theatre in ‘Midsummernightsdream’. The show delivered two
memorable songs on her repertoire ‘Mijn lijf doet zeer’ ('My body aches') and ‘Liefde, is dit het dan?’('is this love?').
The songs seem to be forbidding her divorce and looming illness. In 1978, Bob Dylan wrote two songs for her:’Walk out
in the rain’ and ‘If I don't be there by morning’. In 1980, she scored a hit with ‘De roos’ (a translation by Johan
Verminnen of the famous Bette Midler song 'The rose'), and in 1982 she went on tour with Erik Van Neygen. A few months
later she got seriously sick and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Financially bankrupt she wasn’t able to pay for
her treatment so her Belgian collagues came to rescue and organised the benefit show ‘Een lied voor Ann’. The 200.000
Belgian francs came to late however, Ann died in hospital in 1984 at the age of 38.
Her death continues to be remembered each year with television shows or new compilation albums. In 2000, Edwin
Ysebaert & co released a new cd of Ann Christy, with nothing but unreleased material of the Flemish singer. The cd
will contains tracks which where found by the husband of Ann Christy. Before the release of the album, there were two
new singles from the cd called ‘De nieuwe roos, een hommage aan Ann Christy’, and ‘Iemand’ - a translated cover of
‘People’. In 2005 another rarities compilation was released under the title ‘Ik deed alsof het mij niet raakte’.
In 2008 her version of ‘The rose’ pushed Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ from the number one spot in the Belgian ‘top 1000
of all time’. Already planned for 2008, but due to legal issues the cd+dvd 'Zo was er maar een' was finaly released
in May 2009. The cd contains the live verision of 'De roos', the dvd many unique tv-appearances of Ann Christy.
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