Youp van ‘t Hek has worked with a changing group of musicians to supply the music to the songs in his shows. The constant factor in his musical backup during almost his entire career has been Ton Scherpenzeel (keyboardist of Kayak), who has composed almost all of his songs. In most of his shows he also worked with multi-instrumentalist Rens van der Zalm. The music to Youp’s songs is mostly played on piano, accordion, violin and acoustic guitar, which reflects Youp’s preference for classical music. One example of this is his rendition of the song Flappie, ostensibly about a Christmas he experienced in 1961.

His big break came in 1983 on KRO’s “De alles is anders-show”. His energetic performance made him a household name overnight.

In his 1989 end-of-year show he ridiculed Buckler, a low-alcohol beer brewed by Heineken, as a result sales plummeted and the brand was eventually withdrawn from the market. Youp has often cited this as the best joke in his career and has subsequently referred to it in all his retrospective shows.