VanVelzen

Van Velzen was born in Delft, The Netherlands. His father was a musician, and had a large influence on him as a child. On his sixth birthday, his mother's present was a drum kit. The young Van Velzen was actively involved in several bands at school and wrote music for the annual Christmas musical. He went on to study Creative Communications at the Inholland College of Applied Sciences in Rotterdam, and won the Heineken Student Music Award in 1999 with his band The Goldfish.

In early 2005, VanVelzen was introduced to Dutch music producers Holger Schwedt, Nando Eweg and John Ewbank, and they decided to start working on an album.

His second single, "Burn" was released in January 2007 and was a top 10 hit in The Netherlands. His debut album, Unwind, followed shortly afterwards on 16 March and was a phenomenal all-round hit, debuting at number one on the Dutch charts and remained in the charts for over a year. It won several awards, including the 3FM Award for Best Newcomer, and Best Album at the 2007 TMF Awards.

There were two more singles from the album; "Deep" and "Shine A Little Light" were both released in May 2007.

VanVelzen went on to have a sell-out tour in The Netherlands in 2008 and introduced fans to his new single, "When Summer Ends". The song, which was released in January 2008, VanVelzen wrote with John Ewbank, was the theme song for the summer movie Summer Heat and is VanVelzen's highest chart hit to date, peaking at No. 6. The song was nominated for an Edison Award in 2009.

2009 saw the release of the second single from the forthcoming second album. "On My Way" was released on 15 January 2009 and peaked at No. 29. The second album was released in two parts; Take Me In was released in May and Hear Me Out followed in September. The two-part was eventually certified Gold in 2010. "Love Song" became the third single from the album and was a huge summer hit in the Netherlands that year.

In 2010, VanVelzen was invited to be a judge on The Voice of Holland, a new style of talent show with 'Blind Auditions', where the judges hear the voice of the artist without seeing their face, a concept that was thought up by VanVelzen himself. VanVelzen went on to mentor the 2010 winner, Ben Saunders. VanVelzen returned for the second and third season. After that, VanVelzen announced he would not be returning for the fourth season in 2013.

VanVelzen married his girlfriend Marloes on 1 January 2011. On his Twitter account, he claimed the marriage occurred in the first minute of the new year. They had their first son in February 2012, and a second in April 2013.

In 2012, the album The Rush of Life was released, and three further singles followed: "The Rush of Life", "Cross Your Heart" and "Sing Sing Sing". VanVelzen and band took the album out on the road during a 50+ date theatre tour (including a reprise tour) in 2012 and 2013, and often played in front of a sold-out crowd.

In November 2013, a new single "The Blessed Days" was released, as the title track to the Dutch romantic comedy movie Soof. The video to the song is a re-make of Billy Ocean's "When The Going Gets Tough" and features the main characters of the movie, including choreographer Dan Karaty. The video won the 100% NL TV AWARD for 'best video of the year 2013'.