Robbie van Leeuwen is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 musician who used to be the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist, sitar

Sitar

The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

ist, background vocalist and main songwriter for the Dutch bands The Motions, Shocking Blue

Shocking Blue

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band from The Hague, the Netherlands, formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus", went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970, and the band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974.-Members:...

 and Galaxy-Lin. His most well-known compositions are Shocking Blue

Shocking Blue

Shocking Blue was a Dutch rock band from The Hague, the Netherlands, formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus", went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970, and the band had sold 13.5 million discs by 1973, but the group disbanded in 1974.-Members:...

's most famous songs, Venus, which was an American no. 1 hit, Love Buzz

Love Buzz

-Shocking Blue:"Love Buzz" is a song written by Robbie van Leeuwen of Dutch rock band Shocking Blue.-Nirvana:The American grunge band Nirvana recorded a cover version of the song for its 1988 debut single, released on Sub Pop in the US. It was the first single in the Sub Pop Singles club. A...

, which was famously covered by Nirvana

Nirvana (band)

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

, and Demon Lover

Scorpio's Dance

Scorpio's Dance is an album by Shocking Blue, released in 1970.-Track listing:All songs by Robbie van Leeuwen unless otherwise noted.# "Scorpio's Dance "# "Alaska Country"# "Sally Was a Good Old Girl" # "Demon Lover"...

.

Originally the guitarist for the Motions, a Nederbeat

Nederbeat

Nederbeat is the Dutch pop music influenced by the early 1960s Beat groups led by the Beatles.Also the emergence of pirate station Radio Veronica stimulated the Dutch music community to produce truckloads of 'Nederbeat'. The Hague was the country's beat capital, along with neighbouring coastal...

 band influenced by The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...

 and The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things are an English rock and roll band from London, who originally formed in 1963. They took their name from Bo Diddley's 1955 song "Pretty Thing" and, in their early days, were dubbed by the British press the "uglier cousins of the Rolling Stones". Their most commercially successful...

, he decided to start Shocking Blue as a Dutch equivalent of the Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....

, who would combine a hard edged rock style with a powerful and attractive female vocalist.