Tag: Karen Damen

K3 fans fly united

K3 fan Theo Hendriks in the Netherlands writes…

Hello Doug,

This is Theo, I’m on your blog with a picture of me and K3 and I would like to add to the comment that K3 including Josje, and very especially Kristel, have been very supporting to me in the transistion to a K3 without Kathleen. I still see K3 regularly, and I’m still a big fan.

I lost some weight (well 25 kg), so I look a bit different now, but could you add this picture to your story? It’s Kristel and me end of august 2011.

Greetings Theo.
Netherlands.

Thanks, Theo! I’ll add a link on the earlier blog post pointing to this one. You know how to make a fellow jealous! And on top of that you’re reminding me that for the first time in decades I need to lose weight myself. I’ll make myself even more jealous by grabbing this other photo of you with lovely Kristel. It looks like it was cold there for late August!

P.S. Adjusting to change isn’t easy, but I agree with Theo that Josje is great, although I’m still not sure how they can be K3 with two K’s and a J. 😉

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!

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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K3 Through the Looking Glass

In addition to their TV sitcom, the ladies of K3 in have a new stage musical coming up. It’s an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland (perhaps inspired by the success of Tim Burton’s movie?).

http://youtu.be/PyZCUD7pAHw

With all of the injuries from the aerial acrobatics in the Spider-Man musical, one would hope that Karen, Kristel, and Josje wouldn’t be made to wear wires so they can fly above the stage, but they already did that in an earlier musical, when Kathleen was in the group.

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