Category: K3

Karen Damen, Kristel Verbeke and Josje Huisman

Some Brussels sprouts

What a coincidence that this year two major movies — Smurfs and Tintin — are based on Belgian cartoon characters. Brussels is going green (and, uh, brown) by bringing back horses to the city’s streets…

…and Kristel Verbeke looks into experiments to increase the intelligence of apes (what could go wrong?)…

http://youtu.be/Ub1i9YFf764

…while Josje teaches girls how to dance the K3 way.

http://youtu.be/Cad7TI0P4fE

Japan’s K3?

I have been told by a K3 fan that the equivalent of K3 in Japan is a girl group called Perfume.

http://youtu.be/NBCAPakjr8k

Interesting, but no other Pop act in any culture or language can match this. K3 rules!

http://youtu.be/pBEK2h8QuIY

K3’s usual target audience is kids, but they branch out — Karen Damen in particular, who was in a play called Taxi, Taxi.

This is Karen in a TV show that was on, yes, Nickelodeon. Standards are a bit different in Europe!

Belles of Belgium

NPR has a feature about the Scala And Kolacny Brothers.

[audio:http://s3.amazonaws.com/dogratcom/Audio/2011/Mar/NPR_Scala.mp3|titles=NPR Morning Edition: Scala and Kolacny Brothers]

I first blogged about the Belgian brothers’ girls choir nearly three years ago and featured its interpretation of radiohead’s song Creep, which was used last year for the movie The Social Network.

I wonder how many of the girls who have been in the Scala and Kolacny choir wanted to sing because of K3?

Kristel takes over!

Comment writer Lina (who is not Lia!), sent this K3 video that’s a real knock-out. They’re singing live, and in English. Watch how Kristel Verbeke takes command of the stage. If this doesn’t convince you that Kristel is a major talent, nothing will. This is way too short, and I would love to see more of Kristel doing lead, with Karen and Josje providing backup as they do here.

The announcer, who I assume is Peter(?), seems to be taking his fashion cue from Matt Smith as Doctor Who.

K3-D

Let’s see what’s been doing lately in tiny Belgium, home to the owners of giant Budweiser, and where there hasn’t been a government in nearly a year. Hmm… it seems the political protests there are a bit different than they are in, say, Wisconsin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVagUPDeNgo

One thing’s the same, however, and that’s consumer frustration over getting the runaround when calling customer service. A group of Belgian pranksters on TV calling itself Basta dishes out some payback.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.theworld.org/audio/030220114.mp3|titles=The World on PRI: Basta protests]

The Flemish half of Belgium is, of course, the land of K3, the Europop girl group. The ladies have a new musical coming up, and it’ll be a first for Josje, who joined Karen Damen and Kristel Verbeke after Kathleen Aerts left the group.

WHY, KATHLEEN? WHY??

I don’t know why Studio 100 doesn’t call the new K3 musical “Alices in Wonderland,” but with three Alices on stage it makes sense to have 3-D effects on stage.

LONDON – Josie makes her musical debut soon for K3 in Alice in Wonderland. “It is the first time I’m going to do a full musical with K3, indeed,” said Karen about the musical, which will contain 3-D elements. In Alice in Wonderland 3-D scenery is used, which is a first. “It’s really the first time this has happened,” said Karen to Show News. “Probably there will be many to follow after us, but we can always say later: we were first.” The musical will play next summer at the World Forum Theater in The Hague.

Here’s one of K3’s more ambitious stage productions, with the girls combining a gospel church theme with 50’s “Happy Days” nostalgia. With so many little kids in the audience it doesn’t get as big a reaction as I think it deserved. Check out the wild backdrop.

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