Raymond van het Groenewoud was introduced with the ‘Juweel Witteryck’ on Monday night within the Gothic corridor of the Bruges city corridor, which was crammed for the event. The Bruges musician Sam Claeys and the Bruges youth choir Fioretti supplied well-received interludes with idiosyncratic interpretations of a number of songs by Raymond van het Groenewoud.
The ‘Juweel Witteryck’, made by goldsmith Joris Verstraete, is awarded yearly to an individual or affiliation that has made a contribution to the Flemish, social and cultural subject within the Bruges area.
Constant selection for Dutch
In his eulogy, Bruges municipal councilor Pol Van Den Driessche defined why Raymond van het Groenewoud was a deserved laureate. With songs akin to ‘Maria’, ‘Meisjes’ and ‘Vlaanderen Boven’, and dozens of others, Raymond wrote and composed songs which have turn into a part of the collective Flemish reminiscence.
“At different choose moments, Raymond additionally didn’t hesitate to level out the risks of extremists who preach intolerance. And lately within the tune ‘The Witch Hunter’ he criticized individuals who primarily nail others to the cross.”
“However what charmed the jury of the Witteryck Basis most was his constant selection of Dutch. We are able to say with out hesitation that Raymond turned our language into an actual rock language, one thing that few believed in for a very long time. Actually in his early years, critics discovered that selection slightly unusual, as a result of for a few of them Dutch was at most a language for schlagers and a few so-called cabaret,” he stated.
Not so for Raymond, who sings about his selection within the tune ‘I sing in my mom tongue’ and in addition made it clear on Monday night that he didn’t really feel strongly about ‘Anglo-Saxons of the second class’.
Picture?
For 4 years now, Raymond’s title has been on one of many tiles within the Stadsschouwburg, the primary title to be immortalized in Bruges’ ‘stroll of fame’. Rightly so, however not sufficient in accordance with Pol Van Den Driessche, who on Monday night introduced Mayor De Fauw with the thought of contacting a visible artist for a statue of Raymond someplace within the Sint-Anna district. (CGRA)
