Biography for
Robbie van Leeuwen More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

Mini Biography

Dutch singer, guitarist and songwriter Robbie van Leeuwen was born on October 29 in 1944. In 1967 van Leeuwen formed the rock group Shocking Blue; he had previously been a member of the well-known Dutch rock band the Motions. Shocking Blue scored a massive international smash with "Venus" in 1970; this song was written by van Leeuwen and boasts an infectiously bouncy guitar riff by him as well. Shocking Blue went on to enjoy a steady succession of hit songs in their native Holland which include "Mighty Joe," "Never Marry a Railroad Man," "Hello Darkness," "Shocking You," "Inkpot," "Long Lonesome Road," and "Blossom Lady;" all of these tunes were written by Robbie. Exhausted by extensive touring and the pressure of being the sole songwriter for the band, van Leeuwen eventually left Shocking Blue in 1973. He returned to the Dutch music scene in the mid 70s with the folk-jazz group Galaxy Lin. Moreover, Robbie produced such solo singles as "Too Young" and "Loving You" for former Shocking Blue lead singer Mariska Veres. He had a few hit songs with the studio outfit Mistral, who broke up in the early 80s. In 1979 van Leeuwen made an unsuccessful attempt to reunite Shocking Blue and performed with Shocking Blue at two memorable back to the 60s concert festivals in late 1984. In 1983 van Leeuwen moved from the Hague in the Netherlands to Luxembourg. Robbie moved back to Holland in 1996. In 1994 Robbie van Leeuwen produced the CD single "Body and Soul" for a new incarnation of Shocking Blue fronted by Mariska Veres.

Personal Quotes

[on why he left Shocking Blue in 1973] We never expected to be so busy. The whole touring business just became too tough for me.

[on Shocking Blue] We wrote a lot of our own stuff and the radio DJs preferred us to do original songs, but we had so many albums to do the band had to fill in with a few covers. It was quite exhausting writing all the lyrics and songs myself.