Trijntje Oosterhuis

Did You Know?

• In 2012, Oosterhuis replaced Angela Groothuizen as a coach on The Voice of Holland and her final contestant, Leona Philippo, won the season.
• She was a member of the supergroup Ladies of Soul from 2012 to 2017, alongside Candy Dulfer, Glennis Grace, Berget Lewis, and Edsilia Rombley.

Total Touch

Oosterhuis formed Total Touch with her brother Tjeerd in 1990, and the following year they entered the Grote Prijs van Nederland, the country's top amateur music competition. After collaborating with Candy Dulfer on the album Big Girl, Oosterhuis toured with Dulfer for two years worldwide. Total Touch signed a record deal in 1995 and released their debut album in 1997; the single "Touch Me There" went Platinum, selling over 100,000 copies in its first month despite peaking at number 14 on the Dutch charts. Their second album, This Way, became their first number-one album. In 1999 the band took a break, and Oosterhuis released a live album of Stevie Wonder covers.

Solo career

Total Touch split up in 2001, with Tjeerd turning to production and songwriting while Trijntje set out on her own. Her first solo record, simply called Trijntje Oosterhuis, was heavy on ballads and cast her in a diva role. She actually preferred jazz over pop ballads, so in 2004 she joined Blue Note and put out a live album, Strange Fruit, with covers of Billie Holiday and George Gershwin. Critics liked it, and it finally earned her attention outside the Netherlands.

That same year she had her first son, and in 2006 she had a second. Her next jazz album, The Look of Love (Burt Bacharach Songbook), came out on 20 November 2006 and featured Bacharach himself on piano for two tracks. It was certified Platinum on the day of release, meaning over 70,000 copies had shipped. That December she toured with the Metropole Orchestra, playing Bacharach tunes and Christmas songs.

In 2007 she released a second Bacharach collaboration, Who'll Speak for Love, with Bacharach playing on three tracks. The following year she put out a CD and DVD of an acoustic show with guitarist Leonardo Amuedo, titled Ken Je Mij (Do You Know Me). In September 2008 she appeared as a special guest at the Symphonica in Rosso concert headlined by Lionel Richie, where she sang "Face in the Crowd" with him; that performance ended up on Richie's album Just Go.

Her song "What the World Needs Now" became the theme for the Brazilian soap opera Viver a Vida in 2009 and 2010. Early in 2011 she released Sundays in New York, which was handed out free to readers of the Saturday 15 January 2011 edition of the Dutch newspaper AD.