Peter Blanker
Dutch singer (born 1939)
Peter Blanker (born 11 June 1939 in Delfshaven) is a Dutch singer and musical artist. Blanker sings and writes in the Levenslied genre, a somewhat sentimental popular genre, and teaches the writing of such songs. Many of his songs dealt with his birthplace (Delfshaven) and his later domicile (Rotterdam). He scored a minor hit in 1981 with a translation of a Mac Davis song, and for eleven years had a radio show dedicated to the Levenslied.
Biography
Blanker began a career as a singer in 1961, after working as a sailor, grape picker, and journalist. He was inspired by the French chansonnier Georges Brassens and his Dutch counterpart Jules de Corte.
In the 1960s Blanker worked in Cabaret, and from 1975 to 1978 acted and sang in the children's television show De Holle Bolle Boom, which aired on AVRO television, working with Leontien Ceulemans, Hans Otjes, and Maria Lindes, under the musical direction of Tonny Eyk. Another television show he performed in was 't Oproer kraait, in which he sang the Boris Vian song "Le Déserteur", a song about a conscientious objector; censorship by the record company is blamed for the song not being included in a compilation of the show.
Many of his own songs celebrated Delfshaven and Rotterdam. He scored an unexpected hit in 1981 with the song "'t Is moeilijk bescheiden te blijven", a translation of Mac Davis's "It's Hard to Be Humble", and became so tired of it that he refused to sing it, or any other cover.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Peter Blanker” as dutch singer (born 1939). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1957446. VIAF identifies the subject as 287077664. The Library of Congress control number is nb2013012240. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939, 1981, 1961 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “Peter Blanker” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.