Ronnie Tober | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ronald Edwin Tober |
| Born | 21 April 1945 Bussum, Netherlands |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
Ronald Edwin Tober (born 21 April 1945) is a Dutch singer, known for representing the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 with the song "Morgen".
Tober was born in Bussum, Netherlands, but moved to the United States with his family at the age of three. He grew up in Albany, New York.
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Invited to appear on "The Teen Age Barn", a television show on the channel WRGB, he performed every week for several years. During this time, he appeared on television as a guest of singer Perry Como, performing "O Holy Night" together. He was also a guest star on the CBS series Route 66 with George Maharis and Martin Milner, and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Tober went on to perform for several notable people, including Senator John F. Kennedy, Vice-President Richard Nixon, and Governors W. Averell Harriman and Nelson Rockefeller.
Tober played the role of Tony in the musical The Boy Friend and Billy Jester in Little Mary Sunshine. After being introduced to songwriter and record producer Bob Crewe, Tober recorded his first record in 1959 entitled "Who Taught You How To Love".
In 1963, while in the Netherlands to visit his grandmother, he appeared on Voor de vuist weg, a television show hosted by Willem Duys. Based on the positive reactions to his performance, he decided to move back to the Netherlands. He signed with Phonogram/Philips and produced his first Dutch record "Iedere avond" in 1964.
In 1966, he participated in the Sopot International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland, with the medley "Showtime on Broadway".
In 1968, he won the Dutch national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest and represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 held in London, United Kingdom, with the song "Morgen". He finished in sixteenth place with only one point.
Tober has had TV shows with the broadcasting organizations AVRO and KRO, and his guests have included Vikki Carr, Roger Whittaker and Nancy Wilson.
Tober married Jan Jochems, who he had been in a relationship with since 1968, on 24 February 1998. In 1999, Tober was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent chemotherapy.
On 27 December 2003, during his 40th year in show business, Tober was invested as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Tober's name is also inscribed on the Wall of Fame in the Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam.[citation needed]
In 2002, Tober founded the Ronnie Tober Foundation to help assist people with a developmental disability through cultural and musical works. In 2007, Tober, his husband, and their friends raised €10,000 for his foundation by completing the International Four Days Marches Nijmegen.
