The most famous Dutch protest singer and songwriter.
His father was the postman Willem Frederik de Groot (19 December 1898, Haarlemermeer – 26 June 1969, Haarlem). They married 26 May 1937 in Bandoeng and got one daughter and two sons.
He was born in the Japanese concentration camp Kramat, close to Batavia (Jakarta). September 1944 the mother and children were moved to concentration camp Tjideng, near Batavia, leaving the father behind. Here his mother, the dancer “Fee” (Fairy) Sophie Elisabeth Saueressig (3 October 1906, Bandoeng – 22 June 1945, Batavia) died just before the end of WW2.
May 1946, the family bereaved of the mother returned to the Netherlands. The children stayed with an aunt in Haarlem, but the father went back to Indonesia to full-fill his promised obligations to the Dutch government. In 1951 he returned to the Netherlands, remarried on 3 August 1953 Wilhelmina Keijser in Heemstede and united with his children. Here Boudewijn met his later songwriter Lennaert Nijgh (29 January 1945, Haarlem – 28 November 2002, Haarlem), who lived in the same street and was befriended with his step brother Dick.
After graduation from the Coornhert Lyceum in Haarlem, Boudewijn went to the Dutch Film academy in Amsterdam (graduated 1964).
He is known for protest songs like the anti Vietnam War song “Welterusten Meneer de President” (1966), the carnival song “Het Land van Maas en Waal” (1967), “Jimmy” (1973) and “Avond” (1996)among others. See the Wikipedia for details.
On 17 April 2015 he issued his twelfth album “Achter glas” (Behind glass). On 24 April 2015 it became number 1 of the Dutch album top 100.
Under the pseudonym Frank de Groot, Boudewijn translated seven novels of Stephen King.
De Groot married trice. With Anneke Versteeg (9 July 1945 – 2 October 2011, A’dam) he got his eldest son Marcel de Groot (27 December 1964, Amsterdam), who like his father became a singer. They also got Caya de Groot (5 April 1967, Weesp), an actress. From Alma Netten (1950), he got his youngest son Jim de Groot (26 Augustus 1972, Amsterdam), also an actor. They divorced in 1980. In 1995 he married Anja Bak, the second spouse of his friend Lennaert Nijgh.

Link to Wikipedia