Jan Smit

Dutch singer, TV and radio host. Born December 31, 1985 in Volendam, The Netherlands. Brother of Monique Smit and Jenny Smit.

Jan was asked, when he was only 11 years old, to sing the song 'Mama' with Carola Smit and BZN, during the live recording of their 1996 CD 'A Symphonic Night'. He turned out to be a great entertainer and a good singer. BZN members Jan Keizer, Jan Tuijp and Jack Veerman saw a great future for the young Jantje, and started working on new songs.

In 1997 they released Jantjes first single 'Ik Zing Dit Lied Voor Jou Alleen', a Dutch cover about his deceased grandmother. The single was an instant succes, it entered the charts directly at the top #1 position, something that had only happened in 1965 and 1968 by the Beatles and in 1967 by Procol Harum. Because Jantje was still so young, the labor inspectorate only allowed him to perform or make TV appearances a limited number of times a year. This rule did not apply in Germany and manager Jaap Buijs from Volendam Music B.V. found a way to go on multiple, extensive tours in Germany with Jantje for several years to promote his albums. The 3 BZN members continued writing several successful albums in the next five years, which were released in both Dutch and German.

In 2000, Jantje became Jan in the Netherlands and released a one-off English-language CD. In Germany he would release CD's as Jantje until 2006. From 2002 onwards, Jan Smit started working with, since 1988 ex-BZN members Cees Tol and Thomas Tol as songwriters and producers, who themselves had success as the duo Tol & Tol. Jan also started writing songs himself more often, and together with his friend Simon Keizer, who later became known, thanks to Jan's fame, with Nick Schilder as the duo Nick & Simon. Cees Tol passed away in 2018, but Thomas Tol is still Jan's regular composer and producer.

For the singer, songwriter from Amsterdam aka Jan van der Smit, please use Jan Smit
For the recording engineer from South Africa, please use Jan Smit