It’s very simple. A certain Mike Leegwater of Hillenaar Events has had a legal team investigate whether it is possible to give concerts with music by Borsato without Borsato at the end of December in the Jaarbeurs, and the experts have said that this is possible. And so it continues! How difficult can it be? It is not true that that fat Italian is the only one who can and may sing those simple rhymes by John Ewbank? ‘Most dreams are deceptive, when I wake up next to you I am still dreaming’ and ‘How do you tell someone that the earth is no longer round, that the birds no longer fly, and the sun no longer shines’ or ‘Open my eyes. And look around me. Everything seems to have changed. My stomach is acting strange and I feel strange’.
You don’t necessarily need that fake Italian for that, do you? Any country bumpkin can do that?
And so it’s going to happen. Mike Leegwater tells Omroep PowNed that everything is legally settled: “It’s simple. There are rights to the songs, you have to pay for them and so we just pay. And the rights don’t even belong to Borsato himself.” The fact that Borsato is suspected of indecent acts with a minor doesn’t have to be an obstacle, according to him. “We’re not doing anything with Marco himself. Not with his person, not with his story. It’s purely about his music, about the songs. We’re staying away from Borsato at all.” He also says he doesn’t have any objections in principle. “I don’t have any further judgment about him. Borsato hasn’t been convicted yet, has he? His case still has to come before the judge.”
And especially that last point is an important nuance. It is very easy to boycott and cancel someone until their grave, while it is not even clear what exactly happened. Are we never allowed to put on a Borsato song again? Are we never allowed to sing along to his trifles? Are we never allowed to cry at ‘Why now you’? Nonsense. That should simply be possible. Leegwater therefore thinks that the cards will sell like hot cakes. “We simply look at what people need. And there is a need for this. Definitely.”
