July 27, 2025
It has sure been a while since I saw my sister Margriet Markerink on TV, but today it is happening at the 8pm NOS Journaal. There is an accompanying piece on the NOS.NL website that you can watch afterwards and at the bottom of this post is the full Journaal piece. I am posting this on Facebook through my website, as Facebook Canada will otherwise block this post due to the fact that it does not accept news items from abroad. So annoying! But below is the URL. If you cannot see it, try switching your VPN to The Netherlands… Or move to the bottom to see my phone video of the broadcast.
https://nos.nl/video/2576563
For those who do not know this: my sister had quite the singing career, that started at age 16 when she was ‘discovered’ by a record company, during a school outing (of all places!). She is an amazing composer and performer, and I used to love her songs and her lyrics. I have all her records, but no record player…. Through her, I came to know the national showbizz quite well. And we received many a local celebrity in the humble abode where I grew up and where my mom still lives today. It was a whirlwind of adventures, I can tell you that! I myself was also musically active, but since I played the violin for decades, my genre was not something you would go on television with. Besides: I did not have that ambition!
Intervision international song contest
The Journaal item is about president Putin’s initiative to resurrect the Russian song contest Intervision. Of course, now the participating countries are those who support his policies and the selection of candidates and countries, as well as the jurying is done behind closed door by the government…
My sister participated in the 1980 version of Intervision and got to 4th place, which we all thought was quite the accomplishment for a fairly new and young singer from humble Holland! She performed one of her own songs, to boot, with a full philharmonic orchestra, all live, and it was one of the highlights of her career. At the end of her performance, she ran to the director and rewarded him a kiss. It was a fabulous experience for her.
Missing the plane
Her story had a (now amusing) ending, when a misunderstanding about the departure time of the returning plane made her miss her plane and left her alone in a country on the verge of a revolution! Which made me almost faint at Schiphol Airport, where I waited with a bouquet of flowers for her return. The whole Dutch team came through the doors, but not my sister! For 12 hours it remained unknown where she was, which almost gave my father, who was her manager at the time, a heart attack, as you can probably imagine.
This in itself was dramatic enough, but considering that this happened in 1980, in Poland, in the direct vicinity of Gdańsk, it was downright scary. Gdańsk became the site of significant unrest and strikes that led to the formation of the Solidarity movement, the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. The unrest began with a strike at the Lenin Shipyard in August, sparked by the firing of activist Anna Walentynowicz. My sister was close to the Gdańsk port during an outing and saw all ships come in and remain there. She had no clue what was going on, but it looked impressive and she mentioned it to a reporter upon her return to the hotel. This was not just any reporter, it was Dick Verkijk, a renowned and very recently deceased ‘Iron curtain’ correspondent.
The port workers’ demands quickly expanded beyond labor issues to include calls for freedom of speech, release of political prisoners, and independent trade unions, ultimately leading to the Gdańsk Agreement, the rise of Solidarity and even the fall of the Berlin wall, starting the end of the ‘Iron Curtain’ era.
Scary times
My sister did not know it then, but she was at the heart of an important milestone in history. When Dick Verkijk realised what was happening, he took off but not before giving my sister the key to his hotel room, because he knew she was not entirely safe wandering the hotel with no room an with a now expired visa. Thanks to him, she at least still had a place to stay, after missing the plane. Because of the circumstances, all communication with ‘the west’ was cut within the next 24 hours, so she had no means of contacting us to let us know what was going on. In the meantime all we knew was that Margriet did not come home and was lost!
An adventure with a happy ending
When the phone rang in Dick Verkijk’s old room, Margriet answered it and the person at the other end turned out to be from Dutch television. There was some explaining to do about her presence in the room! That person eventually contacted the family, so that, at least, we knew my sister was safe. She was hovered over by government security people the next 24 hours before her delayed departure home took place. She was flustered, but she did not develop PTSD over it all… She thought that all this was a great adventure! Can you tell we are related? Haha! I will never know why no member of the Dutch team thought of staying behind with her, to help her get home…
It all ended well, of course. After a 30 year career, my sister is no longer active as a singer-songwriter; she went on to do other things, but we do both remember those times well and often talk about them. And if someone needs a few good songs with wonderful lyrics, let me know. I can hook you up!
Post script:
It actually occurred to me that Margriet won the next song contest she participated in: Introfestikur in Curacao, an international troubadour festival. She took first price in the category ‘International Song’. This was her picture in the brochure. The perm was gone and her hair was coiffed nicely:
