Biography
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Born
11 March 1948 (age 76)
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Born In
Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
George Kooymans (born The Hague, Netherlands, 11 March 1948) is a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, most famously in Golden Earring (1961-2021). Kooymans co-founded the band as The Tornado's in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1961. The band had to call it a day after sixty years (!) due to Kooymans' tragic diagnosis with the neuro-muscular disease, ALS. As per February 2021 Kooymans is no longer able to perform.
With Golden Earring, Kooymans enjoyed major international chart success with singles such as Radar Love (1973), Twilight Zone (1982) and When The Lady Smiles (1984). Kooymans was Golden Earring's main songwriter, whereas singer, Barry Hay, wrote most of the group's lyrics.
Kooymans wrote songs for several Dutch artists that he 'discovered', including Bojoura, Earth and Fire (their début single, the Kooymans-penned Seasons, hit #2 in the Dutch charts in 1970) and, many years later, Anouk.
In their home country Golden Earring had over 40 hits and made over 30 gold and platinum albums. They sold millions of albums worldwide and still performed dozens of times per year until the Covid-19 pandemic made this impossible and, almost a year later, ALS symptoms terminated Kooymans' performing career of six decades.
George Kooymans released two solo albums under his own name - Jojo (1971) and Solo (1987) - whereas 2010 saw the release of On Location, an album by Kooymans and his long-time friend Frank Carillo (see: Kooymans & Carillo.
September 2016 saw him embark on a theatre tour under the moniker Vreemde Kostgangers, a collaboration with his long time friends and fellow legendary Dutch songwriters, Boudewijn de Groot and Henny Vrienten. Although Kooymans sang in Dutch on a couple of stand-alone occasions in the past, this marked the first time for most Dutch fans to hear Kooymans sing in his mothertongue. Vreemde Kostgangers released three studio albums of original Dutch-language material between 2017 and 2023.
June 2022 saw the surprise release of Mirage, Kooymans' second studio album with Frank Carillo, this time formally credited to Kooymans & Carillo (rather than Kooymans/Carillo). The album featured a solo bonus track by Kooymans: the first studio rendition by Kooymans himself of 'Seasons', the song he gave to Earth & Fire back in 1970.
George Kooymans lives in Rijkevorsel, Belgium, close to the Dutch border.
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