| 'Amazing Grace' has certainly risen to the occasion since her triumph in the Dutch finals of the National Song Contest 2005 with her energetic power ballad 'My Impossible Dream'. (Her song scored an unanimous 12 points from all jury members and the televoting audience).
In the press, she has become known as 'Amazing Grace'! At 26 years old, Amsterdam-born Glennis took the audience and the jury by storm with her powerful voice and emotional performance.
She got a standing ovation during the Dutch finals and the Netherlands hope that the international audience in Kyiv feels the same way. It’s been a long time since a Dutch Eurovision contestant received so many compliments from other countries. A lot of people are comparing her song and performance to the Eurovision days of Céline Dion and Corinne Hermes, who both won the contest by the sheer power of their voices.
Glennis has been invited by Greece to perform her song as a ‘special guest’ during their finals in Athens. And the video of 'My Impossible Dream' was broadcast in the UK, Spain and Israel during their national finals. Even at this early stage, Glennis is leading in several internet polls. The secret of her success? Well, it’s 'seeing is believing'. Kyiv here she comes!!
As Glennis says, "I come alive on stage, the audience gives me energy."
Ever since Glennis was six years old, singing has been her life – she just loves the stage. Coming from a musical family and raised in a well-known musical area of Amsterdam, she entered many talent contests and won most of them. When she was 12 she performed with Audrey Hepburn at a Unicef gala and, at the age of 13, she was invited by the Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, to join him in a duet, during his concert tour in the Netherlands. When she was 15 she won a prestigious talent show on national Dutch television and she made her first records. For years to come she was considered one of the best singers in the Netherlands. She appeared in an endless stream of radio and TV shows and was often chosen to be a 'special guest' in big arena shows of leading Dutch superstars like Frans Bauer and Rene Froger.
A Dutch diva with international allure; but no record deal…
Everybody expected her to really break through with her album 'Secrets Of My Soul' in late 2003. It contained songs from renowned American songwriters and producers like Diane Warren, Rodney Jerkins, Babyface, R. Kelly as well as numbers by Sweden’s Jorgen Elofsson and Brian Rawlings from the UK. But, in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the UK, the album didn’t sell enough to break even and the Dutch record company EMI Records, in a period of decline, had to let her go. Glennis was without a recording contract and says there was “nothing much happening”. Times were hard and money was low (only her manager stayed by her side) and the Glennis Grace story almost came to an end.
Then suddenly, she realised that her dream was not impossible… She was asked to sing a song for the Dutch National Song Contest and felt that she had “nothing left to lose”. She decided to do it which brings us (and her) back to the beginning of this story. Will her tale be continued in Kyiv? Let’s hope so; it’s been 30 years since the Netherlands last won the Eurovision Song Contest. |
