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Willy Alberti - To see a smiling child
Dutch songs with English translation, translated in English
Willy Alberti - To see a smiling child
Lyrics: Gerrit den Braber / Music: Jean Broussolle
(1968)
Willy Alberti - De glimlach van een kind
Tekst: Gerrit den Braber / Muziek: Jean Broussolle
(1968)
© copyright translation
Dutch song Willy Alberti - De glimlach van een kind
with lyrics, music, video and English translation songtext
english translation
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dutch lyrics
cannot be shown
listen to the song
in the video
english translation
is archived
and can't be shown
publicly for now
dutch lyrics
cannot be shown
listen to the song
in the video
english translation
is archived
and can't be shown
publicly for now
dutch lyrics
cannot be shown
listen to the song
in the video
english translation
is archived
and can't be shown
publicly for now
dutch lyrics
cannot be shown
listen to the song
in the video
© copyright translation
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Willy Alberti (1926-1985), stage name of Carel Verbrugge, was a famous Amsterdam singer of the Dutch 'life songs' ('levenslied'). These are songs about the common people and the problems, misery and hardship of daily life. They are usually sung lamenting with whines and whimpers, with an Amsterdam accent, often accompanied by accordions. Other Amsterdam singers of this genre are e.g.: Johnny Jordaan, Tante Leen and André Hazes.
As a young child, Willy Alberti sang on markets and street corners of the Amsterdam district the Jordaan and he participated in a singing contest in the Amsterdam Edison theatre, where he came in second. In the 1940's and 1950's he mostly sang in Italian (which explains his Italian stage name). He was a cast member of the radio programme The colourful tuesday evening train/De bonte dinsdagavondtrein (1948-1957) and formed the duo The street singers/De straatzangers (in the 1950's) with Max van Praag (singing in Dutch).
From 1958 onward Willy Alberti sang several duets with his oldest daughter, Willeke Alberti (like 'No one wants to leave his child alone', 1983). They sang more songs together over the years, although she mainly had a career of her own. Some well-known songs of Willy Alberti are: 'At the foot of the Western Tower'/'Aan de voet van die oude Wester' (1957); 'Marina' (1959); 'Buona notte bambino'/'Good night child' (1963); and 'That corny sentence'/'Dat afgezaagde zinnetje' (1967). Alberti won an Edison Music Award (1960) and a Golden Harp (1973).
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In the 1970's Willy Alberti started a record shop with his son Tonny. He died suddenly in 1985, because of liver cancer, only 59 years old. In 1997 his widow Ria founded the Willy Alberti-museum in the inner city of Amsterdam. In 2008 a compilation album was released with the title The 100 most beautiful songs of Willy & Willeke Alberti/De 100 mooiste liedjes van Willy & Willeke Alberti (2008).
The above song 'To see a smiling child'/'De glimlach van een kind' (1968) was not a duet, but Willeke sang it in 1995 as a duet, with her then deceased father on video. It was originally a French song, but the Dutch text is not a translation, but a new songtext on that melody.
The song was in the National Hit Parade Top 40 for seven weeks. It has been voted into the Top 2000 (traditionally broadcasted on the radio the last week of the year) seventeen times.
Gerrit den Braber (1929-1997) was a Dutch lyricist. He worked for television and radio. He wrote (or translated) the lyrics of many songs - for artists like Willeke Alberti, Lenny Kuhr, Liesbeth List, Rob de Nijs and Conny Vandenbos. Most well-known songs from his hand are: 'Mirror image'/'Spiegelbeeld', above song 'The smile of a child'/'De glimlach van een kind', 'On the other side of the hills'/'Aan de andere kant van de heuvels', 'Rhythm of the rain'/'Ritme van de regen', and 'A rose, my dear Rosy'/'Een roosje, m'n Roosje'.
 More translated Dutch songs in the genre 'life songs' ('levenslied') and more with the theme 'songs about children'. See also the list of Dutch singers with all their songs on this website.
 Lyrics 'De glimlach van een kind' on Dutch website: Nederlandse songteksten.
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© copyright translation
(2017)
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