De Kreuners

Flemish rockers De Kreuners hit their commercial peak in 1990 with Hier en nu, their first record for EMI and the biggest seller of their career at 100,000 copies. "Ik Wil Je" was the song that carried it, a big-hearted pop-rock singalong that went on to move more than 1 million copies once you count the compilations too.

The band had been at it since 1978 in Lier, when winning the first Humo's Rock Rally got them noticed but not signed. So they did it themselves, putting out three singles on their own, the first of them, "Nummer een", cut in London. Warner Bros. finally bit, and 's Nachts kouder dan buiten appeared in 1981 and shifted 30,000 copies. The follow-up, Er sterft een beer in de taiga, arrived in 1982 with the band already ranked among Flanders' biggest draws, and it turned gold in just two days.

Walter Grootaers has fronted them all the way, with Erik Wauters and Jan Van Eyken on guitars, Ben Crabbé in the back line and Axl Peleman stepping in for bassist Berre Bergen. They announced the end on 13 February 2012 and signed off with two Belgian shows, then thought better of it: in 2017 they came back and toured Belgium and the Netherlands.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.