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Paul de Leeuw
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Paul Henri de Leeuw (born March 26, 1962 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.
De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed.
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Encyclopedia
Paul Henri de Leeuw (born March 26, 1962 in Rotterdam) is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor.
De Leeuw gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for broadcasting company VARA. Though satire was only a part of these shows and much of its humour was essentially harmless he came into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities who were often ridiculed. Besides, many obscure musical acts were featured in his shows, many of which managed to gain national fame after they had been in De Leeuw's show (e.g. Twarres and René Klijn, a former boyband member who contracted AIDS). VARA has since continued his shows apart from a few interruptions, often with considerable success.
In the early nineties, Paul de Leeuw also had some shows celebrating the new year. In the 1993-1994 show he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6" (RTL six, beter dan niks (lit. better than nothing)). This led to a trial by the RTL company, who demanded that De Leeuw withdraw his joke.
He and his partner, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children: son Kas (adopted in October 2001) and son Tobey (adopted in December 2002).
Paul de Leeuw has had many hit singles in The Netherlands. He is most famous for: Vlieg met me mee (#2), Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor (#1), and 'k Heb je lief (#3). Since the beginning of his television and singing career he released albums and singles, always becoming a big success.
On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
25th Anniversary
Paul de Leeuw currently hosts a weekly chat and comedy show, Mooi! Weer De Leeuw. On November 29, 2008 he celebrated his 25th anniversary by staging a 12 hour marathon. Not forgetting the reason Mooi! Weer De Leeuw happened, he invited his one-time collaborator Jack Spijkerman (a fallen hero after his ill-fated brush with now-defunct commercial station Talpa) to reprise one item from his Kopspijkers-show; other guests included comedians Herman van Veen and Brigitte Kaandorp, and singer/musical actor Danny de Munk.
Eurovision Song Contest 2006 incident
De Leeuw is, despite being famous for a long time in the Netherlands, best-known internationally for presenting the results of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. De Leeuw was supposed to present the televote by simply thanking the presenters, performers and fans, before giving the result, but instead the openly gay De Leeuw gave his mobile number to the male presenter Sakis Rouvas live on-air, and made other comments which somewhat lengthened the Dutch results.
De Leeuw also made a reference to gay culture when he remarked that Rouvas and his female co-presenter Maria Menounos reminded him of Will & Grace. As the results were live and required for the contest to continue, De Leeuw could not be cut off until he finished giving the voting results.
De Leeuw's actions resulted in negative comments from the commentators, with the BBC's Terry Wogan calling the act "pathetic" and asking "Who selected this idiot?" during the United Kingdom coverage of the contest. Other commentators, like the Portuguese Eládio Clímaco, didn't translate properly the gay remarks and said "he was saying that they really look like Greeks". De Leeuw presented the votes again for the Netherlands at the 2007 contest, but did not cause quite as much as a stir as he did the year before.
Works
In 2005, De Leeuw wrote the introduction to the Dutch edition of The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History by John Kennedy O'Connor.
Discography
- Voor u majesteit (1991)
- Van u wil ik zingen (1992)
- Plugged (1993)
- ParaCDmol (1994)
- In heel Europa was er niemand zoals jij (1995)
- Filmpje (1996)
- Encore (1996)
- Lief (1997)
- Stille liedjes (1999)
- Kerstkransje (2001)
- Zingen terwijl u wacht (2001)
- Metropaul (2004)
- Duizel mij (2005)
- Mooi! Weer Een Cd (2006)
- Het wordt winter (2008)
Filmography
List of films in which Paul de Leeuw performed as an actor:
- Jan Rap en z'n maat (1989)
- Filmpje! (1995)
- Heerlijk duurt het langst (1998)
- De Pijnbank (1998)
- Max Lupa (1999)
- Yes Nurse! No Nurse! (2002)
- K3 en het magische medaillon (2004)
- Alles is liefde (2007)
- Spion van Oranje (2009)
External links
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