Willy Derby

Willem Frederik Christiaan Dieben ( The Hague , April 5, 1886 - The Hague , 9 April 1944 ) was a Dutch singer who in the period between the two world wars under the name Willy Derby was one of the most popular artists in the Netherlands. Among his best known songs include: The spot at the mill (There at the mill), Two eyes so blue, Peanut Peanut Lekka Lekka and croon songs like Hello Bandung The proud bum heart, Dream Land and white roses. ==[Life  edit ] == Derby, coming from a working class family Hague, worked as a singing waiter in Antwerp and New York and on the ferry Hook of Holland - Harwich before in1915, encouraged by his wife Adelaide de Kuijper , a serious career began in vaudeville. Initially, he joined with his brother Lou Bandy under the name The Brothers Bandy (Bandy is an Americanised reversing the syllables Die-am.) Soon the characters of the brothers, however, were found to clash too strong to cooperate meaningful; Unlike Lou Willy was known as an amiable person.

Willy changed his stage name to the equally American sounding Derby and fourth in the twenties and thirties successes as a singer of light sentimental lyrics, mostly written by Ferry van Delden or Jacques van Tol . Besides artist, he also owned a number of Hague record stores. It was Derby financially than for the wind, which is good because he came from the mid-thirties, both his wife and mistress Teddy Schaank maintained.

During the Second World War was Derby, thanks to Jacques van Tol disguised protest song on the Grebbeberg, from the outset known as an anti- Germanartist. Using his great popularity, he sought to appearances the boundaries of what the Nazis regarded as admissible. He shows that border sometimes exceeded by the fact that he both in 1941 and in 1943 was detained in Scheveningen prison on charges of anti-German provocation.

During the war worsened Derby's health. A few time after Teddy Schaank the love affair broke with him, Derby died at the age of 58 of a heart attack.