Wilde World: Saskia & Serge

Kim Wilde’s first records were written and produced by her father and brother, Marty and Ricky. The three of them have had a great influence on the music world, as this regular series ‘Wilde World’ shows.

The Dutch duo Saskia & Serge consists of Ruud Schaap (born in Den Helder, March 22, 1946) and Trudy van den Berg (Grootebroek, April 23, 1947). They won a talent contest in 1967 and released their first album in 1970, a year after getting married. In 1971 they represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song ‘Tijd’ (‘Time’), which ended up on 7th place. The album ‘Liedjes voor alle tijden’, released the same year, didn’t become a commercial success. It did include a song originally written by Marty Wilde!

‘Wij blijven geloven in morgen’ (‘We keep believing in tomorrow’) was a Dutch translation of ‘I still believe in tomorrow’, written by Marty for John & Anne Ryder. Regular readers will know that there is also a Swedish version by the Hootenanny Singers and a Finnish version by Danny, all released as a single. This Dutch version ended up on the B-side of a single by Saskia called ‘Melodie’ (‘Melody’), also released in 1971.

Saskia & Serge continued to perform, but switched from Dutch to English in 1975, changing their repertoire to country songs as well. This continued throughout the Eighties, but in the Nineties they switched back to Dutch songs. After the Nineties, the remainder of their discography consists of compilation albums, while they are still performing live.

Listen to ‘Wij blijven geloven in morgen’