Monique Bakker

Born in the Dutch village Steenwijk as the daughter of a popmusician, Monique Bakker soon found her way and working-area in Amsterdam. She was a member of the funk-hiphop-soul group U-Gene & O-Jay between 1998 en 2000. The last couple of years she was leadsinger for Candy Dulfers Funky Stuff (as successor of Trijntje Oosterhuis). With Funky Stuff, Monique Bakker performed in Europe and even in Japan. At the renowned North Sea Jazz Festival in 2005 she sparkled in shows with Sheila E, Chance Howard and John Blackwell (both Prince bandmembers). She couldn’t have wished for a better environment to experience the professional industry in the Netherlands. Over the years Monique Baker worked on an excellent live-reputation. She shared the stage with some of the biggest names of both at home and abroad. For example the New Cool Collective Bigband and Tower of Power. In addition, Monique did a duet with Dave Stewart and she was a guestperformer at the George Clinton gigs in Paradiso (the Netherlands). But now, the time has come for Monique Bakker to prove her talent as a solo artist. Her first solo-album, called 'ABC of Romance', was released in May 2007. The music on her debut is a mixture of soul, jazz, rhythm & blues with a hint of hiphop. Ballads, swinging funky tracks and warm soul alternate each other. The mixture of these styles is a result of the close collaboration between Monique Bakker and the internationally respected hiphopproducer Nicolay. Other collaborators are Candy Dulfer (with solos on titletrack 'ABC of Romance' and the powerful 'God's Lonely Crusade'), rapper Pete Philly, Alain Clark and Ivar Vermeulen.