Jacqueline Govaert

With a voice both silvery and raw, Dutch singer and pianist Jacqueline Govaert entered the world in Kaatsheuvel, the Netherlands, and started composing songs at the age of twelve. While still in her midteens she formed the English-language Dutch alt-rock group Krezip in Tilburg in 1997, serving as its lead singer and chief songwriter. The band issued the EP Run Around in 1999 and secured a deal with Warner Music the next year; their debut full-length release, 2000’s Nothing Less, contained the hit single “I Would Stay” and reached the top of the album charts in both the Netherlands and Belgium.

After a stretch of intensive touring, Govaert underwent vocal cord surgery before the arrival of 2002’s Days Like This. Once Warner dropped the group, the band moved to Sony BMG and delivered the Dutch chart-topper What Are You Waiting For in 2005. That year their track “Same Mistake” appeared in the romantic comedy Het Schnitzelparadijs, the year’s highest-grossing Dutch film. A more electronic, disco-inflected set, Plug It In, followed in 2007, and Krezip’s last album, Best Of—which added three new songs—came out in 2008.

Once the band officially split in 2009, Govaert launched her solo career without delay, issuing Good Life in the summer of 2010; the album climbed to number three on the Dutch chart. The more intimate Songs to Soothe arrived in 2014 and reached the summit. Recorded in Los Angeles with drummer Matt Chamberlain, bassist Bob Glaub, and guitarist Val McCallum among the guests, Lighthearted Years became her third consecutive Top Ten album upon its 2017 release.