Kinderen voor Kinderen

The choir released an album of songs sung by children ranging in age from 8 to 12 years old.

The melody has remained the same since 1980, though the lyrics were changed after album 3 to remove a verse about children starving and sleeping in the street.

The chorus has stayed the same, while verses have changed over the years to be more celebratory and inclusive, suggesting that children are more open-minded and understanding.

Over time, however, practical considerations intervened and the children recruited as singers are now required to live within close distance of the TV recording studios in Hilversum, southeast of Amsterdam.

As a consequence the songs are sung with the characteristic accent of that area, the most noticeable feature of which is the so-called Gooise R: the retroflex pronunciation of the letter R at the end of words and after vowels before consonants in a manner similar to that of American English, although other Rs are realized as trills, either alveolar [r] or uvular [ʀ].

The ensemble operates on a yearly production cycle starting with auditions for new members in January.

A 27-CD box set, released at the end of September 2007, gave the choir their first album top 10 entry in almost a decade.

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