Johan Verminnen, one of the most important Flemish singers (with a long AB-history too), plays his farewell concert in his beloved Brussels.

Johan Verminnen: “My greatly talented comrades in arms, I saw them disappear and I think of them. They didn’t say goodbye to their audience. I don’t want to make that mistake, no way.

During the lonely days of corona, the idea ripened in me to sing one last round of the cities and towns that I have been to. After all, I still clearly recall every single second there, how much fun it was.

I’m so grateful for the audience that never let me down in all those years. So, even though it pains me, now is goodbye time. That’s what I’ve decided, and so it shall be!

I carry the musicians with me in my heart. They helped me to be who I was. Even today, I am surrounded by them; because “a singer is a band”, said Wannes, and I learned so much from him!

Are there songs that will carry on? I hope so. I’ll sing them for you with heart and soul one more time. That is what every audience deserves; that is what I owe them, that is my duty. Then I will move on to the Old Singers’ Home. After all, music was my life; music was my home!

My body may creak sometimes, but I’ll still be able to touch you one last time, and then... Farewell! There had to one day come a song that would be the last I sing for you.”

“De laatste ronde, de laatste keer
Ik vind het zonde, maar kom nooit weer
Dit is een afscheid en geen tot ziens
Dit is voor altijd en geen misschien
De laatste ronde”, as he himself sings in the title song of his new show.

Line-up:
Johan Verminnen (vocals)
Bert Candries (bass)
Patrick Steenaerts (guitar)
Martin de Wagter (drums)
Leo Caerts (keyboards)
Paul Flush (Hammond)
Philippe Thuriot of Gwen Cresens (accordion)
Pauline Verminnen (backing vocals)
Janne Blommaert (backing vocals)