Singer and actress Liesbeth List has died at the age of 78. Her family confirms that she died in her sleep on Wednesday 25 March in her home town of Soest.
Liesbeth List was born Elisabeth Dorathea Driessen in Bandung, then part of the Dutch East Indies, during World War II. She lived in a Japanese internment camp for her first years and came to the Netherlands with her father after the liberation. She ended up in a foster home on Vlieland through an orphanage, after which she took the last name of her foster parents.
List started her career in 1962 with appearances on various television shows. She thereby attracted the attention of singer Ramses Shaffy, which meant the beginning of a long collaboration. Together they had great success with numbers like Let Me (Vivre), On the other side of the hills and Pastoral.
List also had successes solo. Songs like Too much, too often and Children a quarter became hits in the seventies. In 1994, the singer worked on the album with Frank Boeijen List. On the record that Boeijen produced, she sang his song The reconciliation.
Photos from Liesbeth List’s long singing career
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List regularly sang chansons translated from French, by Jacques Brel and Edith Piaf, among others. In 1999 she crept for the musical Piaf in the skin of the French singer. Ten years later she returned with the same musical. It won her two Johnny Kraaijkamp Musical Awards.
In her career she won two Edisons and a Golden Harp. She was also appointed a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
List was from 1965 to 1979 together with writer Cees Nooteboom. Then she married Robert Braaksma, with whom she had a daughter Elisah. List remained married to Braaksma until he passed away in 2014.
List announced in 2017 that she would stop performing because she suffered from a form of dementia. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the funeral takes place in a small circle.
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