She wasn’t known for many hit songs, but she was known for some timeless classics that can still be heard today, for example at the Annual Gala Summit 2000. Singer Margaret Eshweg, a resounding ’70s Dutch voice in particular, died Thursday at the age of 70.

Margaret Eshwig grew up in Zaandem, in a family where music played a leading role. Her father, Jan, was a talented accordion player and started a music store in his hometown with his wife, Grey, who plays guitar. It has grown into a creative hotspot for aspiring pop musicians from the region. The store organized musical evenings at the local community centre, where young Margaret could be heard playing the accordion from the early 1960s.

Also featured is a band from the holiday musical evenings: The Marileens. Daughter Margrethe joined that company, learned to play the guitar and sing, and thus began her career in budding Dutch pop music at a very young age.

Sympathetic, somewhat muffled voice

The Marileens, with later TV presenter Henny Huisman on drums, were aimed at an early audience who were not yet allowed to travel to music halls unaccompanied. At the end of the 60s, drummer Huisman decided that enough was enough: he founded the new, more mature rock band Lucifer. In 1973, he asked Margaret Eshwig to become a singer.

Lucifer played in small Dutch pop venues and on Holland America Line’s ocean liners in the 1970s. In 1974 the band recorded the single House for sale In, which would become the greatest hit for the band and singer Echoig. The song, written by American songwriter Gloria Skleroff, was introduced to Lucifer by famous Dutch singer and producer Hans Vermeulen and quickly became a radio hit.

The song became popular due to Eshuijs’ sympathetic and somewhat muffled voice, which managed to give wings to the lyrics of lost love, especially in the chorus. The song was not a worldwide hit, but it was later covered abroad, including by British duo Grant and Forsyth.

Big successes

In 1977 Lucifer scored a modest hit with the song written by Eshwig Self-pity. But in 1978 the group broke up, and the singer began his solo career. With her band Margriet Eshuijs, she had great success during the 1980s. the song black Pearl For example, from the album At the exact time Since 1981, the band has been to Dutch folk festivals and radio shows, including the famous Countdown Cafe From the broadcaster, Veronica.

After her successful pop years, Echoig decided to leave the pop halls and enter the theatres. For years she played musical programs with Nijmegen guitarist Martin Peters, known from the Frank Boygen group, with whom she also sang in the band The Dream. Eshwig then studied at music schools and conservatories and in the last years of her life she was still intensely involved in music. She organized accessible outdoor concerts and charity performances with choirs and fans of classic pop music.

On Friday it was announced that she had been ill for some time and passed away on Thursday. Margaret Eshwig has just turned 70.