André Rieu Celebrates His 70th Birthday in Maastricht

King of The Waltz (70) Celebrates His Birthday

In "His" Maastricht

André Rieu: "Without Marjorie, I would be in the gutter"

By Harrie Nijen Twilhaar, de Telegraaf. 30 September 2019: Violinist and conductor ANDRÉ RIEU celebrates his 70th birthday on Tuesday (Oct 1). The world famous "King of the Waltz" interrupted his South American tour to celebrate this memorable day with family, friends and his orchestra. In an exclusive interview the musician tells about his family, the love for music and the future: “I don't want to think about quitting. I am going be at least 140 years old!”

Maastricht citizen ANDRÉ RIEU is overjoyed that King's Day 2020 will be celebrated in "his" city and the violinist would like nothing more than to give Queen MÁXIMA and King WILLEM-ALEXANDER a concert to on 27 April. "The choice for Maastricht was the first "Birthday present" I received last week for my birthday. It would be fantastic to be able to perform for the royal couple."

Just back from Colombia, the uncrowned Waltz King, who is going to blow out seventy candles on Tuesday, tells us he wants to take all the time and tranquility to celebrate his birthday with a party of more than five hundred (!) guests. Now that he is at home with his wife MAJORIE RIEU (72), the driven artist can catch his breath. "After my birthday we fly back to Chile, where we will continue our concerts."

►Does your seventieth birthday feel different than when you were fifty or sixty?

"No, not at all! I don't feel like I'm turning seventy at all. And now again,  I am celebrating my birthday between two tours: Colombia and Chile. Isn't it fantastic that I have been traveling around the world in good health for so many years? I want to be at least a hundred years old. I trust the scientific research, which to indicate that we can even reach 140. So I'm halfway there, haha.

Hollandse Hoogte

►It seems that as you are getting older, your popularity also increases.

"My fame has indeed explosively grown in recent years. This is mainly due to our concert registrations which are shown worldwide. Also in countries where we have never performed before. I even get nice sweet messages from fans from India, Mongolia, Egypt, Malta ... truly from all over the world. The people in those countries primarily know our music from YouTube and Face book.”

►Are there fans with whom you have built a personal relationship?

"No, I would never do that. I have my personal friends, lovely people with whom I already was friends before I was not yet known. That is very different from fans."

►You radiate a lot of enthusiasm.

"Being an artist does not feel like work. I have fun! I can imagine that people who have done heavy or tedious work all their lives will be happy when they can finally retire. But I can't imagine anything better than to be on stage every night and make music with my orchestra. After every concert I need a few hours to recover. You can only make music with love and passion.”

►How do you maintain that mentally and physically?

"I have changed my lifestyle. I eat healthy, do not drink alcohol and exercise a lot. I am lucky that I can sleep anywhere, even behind the stage. That is a big advantage. In addition, I have had a wonderful life of seventy years and I am energetic. I sometimes feel like a child who can play all day without getting tired. I just do what I feel like. That is also my advice to young, ambitious people: do something that you enjoy."

►Your illness in 2010, a viral infection of your equilibrium, hit like a bomb. Is that why you started to live healthier?

"I became ill that time for the simple reason that I did too much. Since then I do less. Fewer interviews, haha! I concentrate on music and I do strength training three times a week with a personal trainer.”

►Are you afraid of becoming ill again?

"Absolutely not. I almost never become ill and I think that the fear of becoming ill is in itself already a cause of illness.”

►You once said, "My life is music, it never stops." So neither do you?

"That's right yes. I see no reason to stop making music. It's too much fun! This year we performed in seventeen countries and sold nearly 700,000 tickets. Why should I stop? "

►You run a large family business, but a successor, musically speaking you don't have. Have you ever thought about how that is going to continue when the André Rieu era is over?

"For the sake of fairness: that is not something I am busy with currently. I mainly think about new programs, ideas, new CDs, DVDs, new countries where we can go. I have been doing this together with my wife Marjorie, for forty years, and we want to continue this together for a long time to come.”

►When is it over? If your health fails you?

"Well, if that ever happens, we'll see then how to proceed. I am not a worrier to sit and worry about that. I look ahead, but only in a positive way. What can I still do? And not: what I could possibly never do anyway?"

►You place an enormous value on your family. How important are they to you? PIERRE in particular is a driving force, MARC is less visible?

"My family is very important to me. Pierre (38) has been in the organization and production for almost twenty years. He has grown enormously in the company. Marc (41) is a painter and historian. He also writes lyrics for our website and has an advisory role in the musical field. He is a great connoisseur of classical music and film music. I do everything together with Marjorie. I would be in the gutter without her."

►The love with Marjorie is still flourishing, although it was less so in the past. You even went into therapy.

"We have been happily married for 44 years. The fact that we went into therapy had to do with the fact that we were both raised quite strictly. We had to learn to move more freely. Well, that was pretty successful! I always wanted a woman with whom I was not only privately happy but someone with whom I could also work well. Marjorie also gave me the confidence that I needed to form my own orchestra. She was the first to believe in me. Without her I would not be where I am now."

►You are away from home a lot. How does she deal with that?

"That is our life and it is great. We have contact with each other every day and moreover we are never more than two weeks on tour for, because there are many parents of small children in the orchestra. I certainly don't find it touring boring, on the contrary. ”

►Do you ever waltz with Marjorie?

"Haha! We took a dance course together once, but we both wanted to lead. So that became a fiasco. Just let me and my orchestra play a waltz!"

Photos: Hollandse Hoogte

Thanks to Ineke for sending the article and John translating it