Anouk (full name Anouk Teeuwe) is a Dutch singer-songwriter and record producer who has been called “one the most popular and experienced artists in the Netherlands”. She’s had over twenty top 20 singles in her homeland with several of them also charting in Belgium. As of 2018, all but one of her studio albums has topped the album chart in The Netherlands.

Her international stardom began in 1997 when “Nobody’s Wife”, the second single from her debut album Together Alone, reached the top 10 in five European countries sending her album to into the top 10 in those regions.

Four of her next five albums were certified gold or platinum in both The Netherlands and Belgium, the exception being the harder-rocking Graduated Fool. During this era (1999-2009), her single “Lost” became her second to chart outside of The Netherlands and Belgium, reaching the top 10 in Denmark and Norway. In 2006, Dutch radio station 3FM named her Best Female Singer. Her 2008 divorce inspired the lyrics and title of 2009’s For Bitter Or Worse with Anouk admitting to Nieuwe Revu:

I can not deny that many lyrics of the songs are about it. But not everything.

Her song “Birds” got The Netherlands into the finals of Eurovision 2013, the nation’s first time reaching the finals in nine years. It ultimately finished in ninth place, giving The Netherlands their best placement in fourteen years. This helped “Birds” become Anouk’s third single to chart outside of The Netherlands and Belgium, as it also found success in Sweden, Germany, Austria and Finland. The song appeared on her album Sad Singalong Songs later that year. Her next album, 2014’s Paradise And Back Again, is her last to be certified platinum in The Netherlands. That same year, she released Live at Symphonica in Rosso, a performance of her music accompanied by an orchestra.

In 2015, Anouk became a judge on the talent show The Voice Of Holland for one season, but later returned in 2017. She attracted both praise and controversy on the show in late 2017 when she eliminated both contestants who were competing to progress on the show, as it was the first time in the show’s history a judge had done this.