Ede Ulfert Staal was a Dutch singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

 from the Northern province of Groningen

Groningen (province)

Groningen [] is the northeasternmost province of the Netherlands. In the east it borders the German state of Niedersachsen , in the south Drenthe, in the west Friesland and in the north the Wadden Sea...

 who sang mainly in the Groninger dialect of Dutch

Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

.

Early life

Ede Staal was born in 1941 in Warffum, the son of an NSB-father (National Socialist) and a farmer's daughter. His father worked as a teacher, and his eldest son Ede would later follow in his footsteps by becoming a teacher himself.

Career

At the age of five, Staal started making music, inspired by his grandfather who had worked as a musical director in Leens

Leens

Leens is a village in the Dutch province of Groningen. It is located in the municipality of De Marne.Leens was a separate municipality until 1990, when it was merged with Ulrum, Eenrum and Kloosterburen....

, where he grew up.
His breakthrough came in 1974 with the song "I'm in the blues". He initially sang in the English language, having studied English at the University.
In 1981, he began singing in Groninger dialect, and became well known with the comical song "Mien toentje" (my little garden) as well as with "t Het nog nooit zo donker west" (it has never been so dark before).
One of his last songs was the emotional "Mien hogelaand" (my land) in which Staal sang of his love for the land he grew up in.

Personal life

Marriage and family

Staal was a teacher English at a local highschool. He married to Fieke Spoel and became the father of six sons: Hanno, Jeroen, Martijn, Elwin, Jelger en Jasper. They lived on several farms troughout the province of Groningen.

Death

Ede Ulfert Staal died of cancer at the height of his fame. He is still immensely famous in homeland, but also has following outside of the Netherlands.

Legacy

In 2011, 25 years after his untimely demise, Staal has become somewhat of an iconic figure in his homeland. A monument was erected in his honour near Delfzijl, where he died at his farm in 1986. His music was translated in several languages, one of his songs, "Termunterziel" was even played in Japan and sang by a Male Choir in Nippon.