Raymond van het Groenewoud

Raymond van het Groenewoud (born 14 February 1950) is a Belgian musician.

He was born in Schaerbeek, of Dutch descent, and he sings primarily in Dutch.

His biggest hits include "Vlaanderen Boven", "Meisjes", "Je Veux de l'Amour", "Zjoske Schone Meid" and "Liefde voor Muziek".

He refers to himself as a musician but also a poet, philosopher and clown.

His debut was as a guitar player with Johan Verminnen.

In 1972 he started the group Louisette with Erik van Neygen.

A number of solo albums followed, accompanied by his group De Centimeters.

In 1977 he had his first hit record, the single "Meisjes" from the album Nooit Meer Drinken.

His lyrics are sometimes happy, sometimes sad, jovial or philosophical.

In 1980 he had his first success in the Netherlands with a concert at the Pinkpop Festival and the hit "Je Veux de l'Amour".

He wrote the soundtrack for the film Brussels by Night by Marc Didden (1983).

In 1990 most of his songs were re-recorded for a compilation album, with a new single "Liefde voor Muziek", a parody of the gospel by James Brown in the movie The Blues Brothers.

It reached number one in Belgium and the Netherlands.

In the 2000s he became renowned for his protest songs, including the anti-Bush Weg met Amerika (Eng: Down with America) and "WapperSong", which rallied against the plans for Antwerp's Lange Wapper bridge.

To celebrate his 70th anniversary, a well received three-part documentary about his life and career, called Raymond! was broadcast by VRT (Belgium) and NTR (Netherlands) in 2020.

72-year old Van het Groenewoud and his band performed a nearly 8-hour long concert at the closure of the Gentse Feesten in 2022, playing 111 songs.