About

Janny Haalboom (born Jannigje Gijsbertha Hendrika Haalboom; September 15, 1966) is a talented singer, well known in the Benissa and Calpe area on the Costa Blanca in Spain.

Biography

Janny Haalboom used to sing along with the radio as a child and is very interested in music. A trait that made her dream come true.

Early on, she sang while cleaning the house, in the hoover, while her mother did the shopping.

The neighbours certainly knew about these private concerts.

She grew up with her parents and her brother in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Her father was an all-round typographer. Her mother was a housewife. When Janny got older, her father started a driving school, in which later both her father and her mother taught. Every other Sunday, her father was sexton of the Protestant church.

The first LP Janny found in her parents' music box was by Vera Lynn. She played it over and over again. The second LP she found was by Nana Mouskouri. She played that one over and over again too. Janny was seven years old. But she had seen Nana in black and white on Dutch television a few years earlier, in 1971. It left a deep impression.

From the age of 10 to 14, Janny learned to play the electronic organ. She started with recorder to learn the musical notes, then on piano and then on organ. The first lessons were at Mrs Bouwman's home in Wageningen-Hoog. Later she was taught by Ella Hoeneveld in Wageningen, both at the music school and at her home.
And at 15, Janny learned to play the guitar. She was taught by Dutch conductor, pianist and composer Loek van der Leeden, at his home in Wageningen, who was conductor of the Eben Haëzer choir.

The neighbour across the street where Janny lived worked at an organ factory, and also played electronic organ. He had a subscription to Stef Meeder's sheet music, and let Janny share in it. Many an evening they played together at the neighbour's house on his organ.
Sometimes Janny would try to write a song from the radio that she really liked by ear and feel on music paper, so that she could play it. She carefully wrote down the notes and accompanying lyrics.

If there was a wedding anniversary of friends or family, she would occasionally go on stage and sing along with the band playing songs by Abba, Nicole or the Goombay Dance Band.

The bands asked her to join, but her parents wouldn't let her. "If she wants to sing, she can join the church choir," her mother thought. But that didn't interest Janny.

Having to choose between sports and music, she left music aside and concentrated on sports. In her spare time, she kept listening to the radio and singing along.

When she finished school, she wanted to study music and go to the conservatory. Unfortunately, her parents did not agree with her choice. Although she was also very interested in accounting, she decided she wanted to study economics instead. She did not get that chance either. Since languages were also very appealing to her, she tried again: "Well......., maybe study English then?" Her parents' answer was very clear and would stay with her for a long time: "Use your hands, get a job and earn money!" Her mother's opinion in particular had a huge impact on her: "You're a girl, you should clean the house!".

At that point, she left music completely and started a life on a rocky road.

After leaving home at the age of 20, Janny spent three years with Egyptians. In the late 1980s, shoarma restaurants appeared in her city. She became a regular customer. She loves all Mediterranean and Asian dishes. It was there that she heard the music of Umm Kulthum.

Because blood is thicker than water, when she had her own bar in the mid-1990s, she organised evenings with live music and karaoke competitions and sometimes sat on the edge of the bar on weekends singing along to well-known Dutch songs to entertain her customers.

In the late 1990s, Janny took singing lessons with Linda van der Mee at her home in Arnhem, a Dutch qualified singing and piano teacher. Linda discovered that Janny was not breathing properly, for which she gave her exercises. Linda asked Janny if she was interested in "musical". Although Janny knew many songs from the radio, she had no idea what her teacher was talking about. But the tunes sounded fun, so "let's give it a chance".

In 2002, Janny moved to Spain. Sometimes she sang songs in a karaoke bar, otherwise she stuck to listening to CDs.

Then, in 2004, she fell ill. That was a turning point in her life!

For five years, she struggled with her health. And after that she needed another two years to work on her condition.

Before an operation to remove her thyroid gland, Janny had to sign a declaration because of the high risks to her vocal cords. The effect of that declaration was a huge wake-up call. The specialist explained to her that when she woke up, she had to make signs to the nurse asking whether or not she could speak. If the nurse answered "yes", it meant that everything was fine and she could talk.

Back home, Janny explained to her partner that whatever happened, if she came out of this without damage to her vocal cords, she would start singing again and no one would stop her from trying to achieve what she wanted to achieve.

And so it happened. She woke up after surgery, the nurse nodded that Janny could talk, and tears of happiness could not be held back.

In 2006, as soon as Janny could do things independently again, she took singing lessons with Dutch singing teacher Johanna Spanjerberg at her home in Orba, who was a member of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and lead singer with the "Glenn Miller Orchestra". At the same time, she participated in Rob Barendsma's project "ABBA on the Beach". Rob Barendsma is a Dutch well-known director and choreographer. Janny joined Rob's musical theatre group "Teatro del Sol" and participated in the next four musical productions each year.

From then on, although she still had health problems, she devoted as much time as possible to her first passion. She bought lots of backing tracks, sorting them one by one and searching the internet for the lyrics as much as possible, and organising everything on her laptop.

In 2008, Janny joined the English amateur show group "Sounds Familiar" led by English singer and producer Philip Ashley. She took singing lessons with Philip, who taught her all the skills for musical theatre, and Janny participated in many of his shows, both company numbers and solos.

In 2009, Janny began her solo career. She recorded a CD with five songs and sang at several private functions.

In 2010, Janny joined Philip Ashley's professional group "Amadeus" and participated in two productions, again taking part in company numbers and singing solos.

In 2012, Janny was ready to boost her solo career and was coached by Torben Thoger, an award-winning Danish composer, record producer, recording artist and filmmaker. With him, she recorded her first CD of 12 songs called "All of me".

From then on, she started performing solo at both public and private venues.

In late 2013, she started collaborating occasionally with singer Luigi, a well-known singer in the Pego area on the Costa Blanca in Spain.

She also started presenting events under the name Oase Entertainment.

It was in late 2014, that Janny decided to push her boundaries and go for an international audience by putting her music on NumberOneMusic. She received a very good response from all over the world.
She also started attending concerts of her very great role model, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. With time, Janny was lucky enough to get serious coaching from Nana. Something Janny is forever grateful to Nana for.

Due to concerns about genetic cardiovascular disease in the family, Janny asked her GP for major research in 2015, which resulted in a series of tests.

In the year 2015, she made some recordings with the conductor of the Dutch Shanti choir De Schuimkoppen, Edo Luynenburg. He showed her how to make her own recordings. Along with what she saw when Torben Thoger produced her first CD, from 2016 she took the opportunity to produce future recordings herself.

Due to a serious heart problem, she underwent preventive surgery in 2016 and underwent coronary angioplasty and stent implantation.

Then, after 36 years of not playing the organ, she started playing again, this time on the piano keyboard.

Once fully recovered in 2018, she set a determined course to make her dreams come true.

Anno 2019, Janny has written several songs of her own. Combined with the ones she had already written in 2012, she translated them into several languages.
It was in June 2021 that her first self-composed instrumental song "Summer in Spain" saw the recording light. And in December the same year, she produced her first self-composed and -written song with lyrics "A Peaceful Christmas", which she already released in several languages.

The pandemic from 2020 till 2023 was obviously a very tough time for everyone, which did not leave Janny untouched either. Nevertheless, she is back on the discipline and working hard on her next step.

Her next project is to work on multilingual recordings, both her own composed and written songs as well as songs that are in public domain.

These days, Janny produces everything herself at her own small home studio.

Janny is very happy to be back to her first passion. Music lifts her up, and she hopes her singing will lift you up too.

Biography Janny Haalboom 2024