Diny and Wim

Singing duo

Diny Jansen-Kempers (1940) and Wim Scholten (1936), both from Bredevoort, formed the singing duo Diny and Wim from 1955 onwards. They knew each other from a youth association. Scholten played guitar, sang and wrote the songs.

Diny was eighteen when the duo were discovered by Johnny Hoes, then a major figure in Dutch popular music. Soon afterwards, the pair were in the Phonogram studio in Hilversum. Two singles followed: one in standard Dutch and one in the Achterhoek dialect, which even then was their preference.

After four years the duo split up, only to resume performing in the late 1970s. From then on they recorded one release after another. Diny also began writing songs in dialect. Their song “A’j plat kõnt praoten mo’j ’t neet laoten” was played every week on Arie Ribbers’ dialect programme for Omroep Gelderland.

In the early 1980s Diny and Wim were rediscovered, this time by the Ivory Tower record label. An LP with twelve self-written Achterhoek songs followed immediately. Between 1983 and 1993, Diny and Wim made three LPs and a CD. They also contributed to five LPs in the Achterhoek Plat series and to various compilation albums. During this period, a single of “A’j plat könt praoten mo’j ’t neet laoten” was also released.

Because of Wim Scholten’s health problems, the duo stopped permanently in 1993. Dirkjan Jansen, Diny’s son, briefly took Wim’s place afterwards. From 2007, Diny was active as choir director of two Dutch sentimental-song choirs: De Aladna’s from Aalten and Het Dinxpers Smartlappenkoor.

Diny Jansen died in Aalten on 27 September 2017 at the age of 76. She had been active in music for at least sixty years.