Yesterday Lenny Kuhr appeared on the Dutch TV programme Studio Sportzomer where she sang De Controleur, which is a satirical re-write of De Troubadour, which was one of four winners at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest.
The lyrics to the new version plays at the fact that Dutch football star Mark van Bommel who has the task of being the controller, but however appears to have lost control. The Netherlands went into the Euro 2012 tournament mentioned as being one of the favourites. Two losses to first Denmark and next Germany however has changed things so that the Dutch national team which reached the final of the World Cup two years ago no longer comes across as such a strong team as the many international stars would suggest.
The re-writing was done by Jan Mulder, a former national football player, collumist and frequent guest in a variety of talk shows. For Lenny Kuhr it is not the first time De Troubadour is being used in football situations as in 1974 she had a hit with the version titled De Generaal, which was a tribute to Rinus Michels, who was coaching the Dutch national team at the World Cup in 1974, where they reached the final losing to Germany. In 1988 he was back as coach and managed to bring home the trophy at Euro 1988.
Below you can see first the version from last night De Controleur and afterwards the 1974 version De Generaal.
