OSCAR HARRIS

Oscar Harris

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.
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Mentioned in the biography of

1960   Annie de Reuver
1965   Twinkle Stars
1966   Het
1968   Billy Jones
1968   Het
1972   Robby Alberga
1973   Humphrey Campbell
1988   Tom Klein
1994   Ruth Jacott
1994   Sandra Reemer
1996   Vincent Henar
2004   Riem de Wolff
2004   The Blue Diamonds
2005   C-Mon & Kypski
2008   Eddy De Clercq
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Biography Oscar Harris

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.

Played in

Tropical Allstars   zang
Twinkle Stars   zang

1943 - 1963

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

1965 - 1972

Oscar's career starts in the Twinkle Stars, a group of Surinam musicians from Amsterdam. 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).

Billy Jones Max Nijman Twinkle Stars

1973 - 1978

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

In 1980 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.

Debbie Metropole Orkest

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.

Black Market Audio

2007

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

Photos Oscar Harris

Audio/Video Oscar Harris

Video Oscar Harris