The Netherlands was saddened this week by the loss of a sixties and seventies singer described as being part of the social fabric of Dutch life. Ramses Shaffy.
Singer and actor Ramses Shaffy, who died on the morning of 1 December 2009, was a larger-than-life figure who left a lasting impression on the Dutch cultural scene.
He was born in 1933 in the Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, the son of an Egyptian diplomat and a Polish countess of Russian descent. When he was six years old his mother contracted tuberculosis and he was sent to stay with an aunt in Utrecht. He was subsequently taken into care and ended up in a foster home in Leiden. The childhood trauma of leaving his mother is commemorated in his song Trein naar het noorden (Train to the North). Read more
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