Oscar Harris

Line-Up Events

IJsselmonde 7
3453 LE DE MEERN
T  030-6696090
E  info@lineupevents.nl
W  www.lineupevents.nl

RFBMusic/Umbrella records

Postbus 8034
1005 AA AMSTERDAM
E  info@rfbmusic.com
W  www.rfbmusic.com

Summary

Biography

Probably the best-known Surinam musician in the Netherlands. Harris scores his biggest hits in the '70s with a mixture of cheerful Caribbean singalong songs and sensual soul ballads.
Full biography

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Biography

Probably the best-known Surinam musician in the Netherlands. Harris scores his biggest hits in the '70s with a mixture of cheerful Caribbean singalong songs and sensual soul ballads.

1943

Oscar Harris is born in Surinam on November 30. At the age of 20 he moves to the Netherlands for his studies.

1965

Oscar's career starts in the Twinkle Stars, a group of Surinam musicians from Amsterdam. Second vocalist in the band is Ruud Seedorf who is later replaced by Billy Jones.

Billy Jones Humphrey Campbell

1969

The band's first single, T.O.P., becomes a massive hit. It's the start of a string of hits for the Twinkle Stars. The group's popularity reaches a highpoint with the release of the chart topping singles Try A Little Love (1970) and Soldier's Prayer (1971).

1972

Jones is replaced by 17-year-old Humphrey Campbell.

Humphrey Campbell

1973

The Twinkle Stars hit machine is coming to a standstill and Harris embarks on a solo career, which - after a difficult start - brings him back into the charts. From 1976 onwards he performs at various song festivals in European countries such as Bulgaria, Luxembourg and Austria. He becomes quite successful abroad and tours countries such as Germany, Scandinavia and France.

1979 - 1988

The Twinkle Stars become Thunderstorm and start playing Earth, Wind & Fire-like music. In the meantime Harris scores a huge international (Europe, Israel, Africa, Indonesia) hit with Song For The Children. A long-term partnership with Dutch singer Debbie (who had solo hits with Everybody Join Hands and Angelino) is, however, less successful than expected. The hits are becoming less frequent but because of his earlier successes, however, Harris still manages to continue performing, mostly in discotheques and on the radio (accompanied by the Metropole Orchestra). He also continues releasing albums. Thunderstorm also continues performing.

Debbie

2003

His young peer Sébastiaan invites Harris to sing a duet on the single Lean On Me.

2005

Oscar Harris contributes to the album Dutch Rare Food, featuring historic so-called 'Dutch rare grooves' reworked by mix grandmasters C-Mon & Kypski. The album is Disc 2 of the Dutch Rare Groove CD, released in October by Supertracks in conjunction with Fonos.nl.

C-Mon & Kypski

2006

In support of Dutch Rare Groove Oscar Harris, C-Mon & Kypski, Black Market Audio plus DJ 'funkologist' Sjeng Stokkink perform live on public 3FM's annual Dutch weekend.

2007

Oscar Harris lends his voice to Beestenboel, the Dutch version of animation film Barnyard: The Original Party Animals.

Discography

In the discography you will find all recordings that have been released listed chronologically. We restrict ourselves to the title, the type of audio, year of publication or recording, label, list of guest musicians, plus any comments on the issue.

Photos

Audio/Video

Video

Oscar Harris - Song for t...