Danny De Munk

Danny de Munk is a Dutch entertainment celebrity who initially rose to fame in the 1980s as a child actor and teen pop singer. Though his teen pop career fizzled out in the 1990s, he made a surprising comeback in 2008 with the latter-day album Hart en Ziel, which spawned a pair of Top Ten hits. Born on February 19, 1970, in Amsterdam, he made his lead acting debut in Ciske de Rat (1984), a film based on a coming-of-age trilogy of books written in the 1940s by Dutch author Piet Bakker. Not only was the film a success, the feature song, "Ik Voel Me Zo Verdomd Alleen," as sung by de Munk in the film, was a smash hit on the Dutch singles chart, spending four weeks at number one and ten weeks overall in the Top Five. In addition, a commercial soundtrack album featuring the song, Ciske de Rat (1984), was released on RCA. In the wake of the chart-topping success of "Ik Voel Me Zo Verdomd Alleen," the teen pop album Danny de Munk (1985) was released on RCA and proved highly popular. Written and produced by a team of Dutch studio hands, the album spawned a series of singles including the Top Five hits "Mijn Stad" and "Mijn Meissie," the Top 20 hit "Mengelmoes," and the Top 30 hit "Met Kerstmis Hoor Je Blij Te Zijn." Meanwhile, de Munk proceeded onward with his acting career, appearing in the film Op Hoop Van Zegen (1986) and singing its Top 40 soundtrack hit "Ratsmodee." He subsequently returned to music-making full-time, releasing a pair of albums on EMI, 'N Jaar Later (1987) and Geen Wereld Zonder Jou (1989), both of which proved relatively unsuccessful, spawning nothing more popular than the Top 50 hit "Amsterdam Laat Je Niet Kisten." Successive albums Vrienden Voor Het Leven (1991) and Danny (1995), released on Indisc and Columbia, respectively, did little to reverse his declining fortunes as a pop singer, and so he put his recording career to rest. Over a decade later, however, de Munk revived his recording career with the comeback album Hart en Ziel, which spawned the Top Ten hits "Het Levende Bewijs" and "Laat Ons Niet Alleen."