Kim-Lian

Biography

Kim-Lian van der Meij (born October 1, 1980, Beverwijk, Netherlands) is Dutch musical actress,[1] presenter and a singer-songwriter. Kim-Lian comes from a musical family. Both her parents were professional dancers, her mother could even be found on the dance floor when she was pregnant. Kim-Lian won a number of dance contests in her childhood and regularly competed in lip-sync shows. She competed in the Dutch program "The Mini Playbackshow" (a lip-sync contest on national TV) twice, once at the...

Kim-Lian van der Meij (born October 1, 1980, Beverwijk, Netherlands) is Dutch musical actress,[1] presenter and a singer-songwriter.

Kim-Lian comes from a musical family. Both her parents were professional dancers, her mother could even be found on the dance floor when she was pregnant. Kim-Lian won a number of dance contests in her childhood and regularly competed in lip-sync shows. She competed in the Dutch program "The Mini Playbackshow" (a lip-sync contest on national TV) twice, once at the age of 6 and once when she was 11.

When she turned 16 she was signed at several castings and model agencies. She was soon asked to play minor roles in Dutch TV programs such as Goede Tijden Slechte Tijden, Kees & Co and more. After doing a screentest for the Veronica TV channel she was a hostess of CallTV. From 2001 to 2002 she hosted Puzzeltijd (Puzzletime).

After she quit Puzzeltijd there was a silence around Kim-Lian. But in 2003 she was asked to host the Kids Top 20 for the children network Jetix. This TV program had audiences of 200,000 children every week. For this program she won the highest award in the Netherlands for a children program: the Gouden Stuiver (The Golden Nickel).

In 2003 she got the chance by CMM Records to record an album. At the end of 2003 the first single "Teenage Superstar" was released. Already Kim-Lian went international. Teenage Superstar became a #1 hit in Indonesia and was charted in the charts in other countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Asia, Sweden and Italy.

After "Hey Boy!" was released (which also did well in all the charts), Kim-Lian's debut album Balance was released, which peaked at #9 in the Dutch Album Chart.

The third single "Garden of Love" was released to show a more mature side of Kim. It was a song with some heavy guitars in it. Although she was promoted as a children artist this song had serious lyrics. "Garden of Love" made it into the Top 40 in the Netherlands but wasn't her biggest success so far.

The last single that was released off the album was a cover of Kim Wilde's song "Kids in America". The song became another top 10 hit for Kim in the Netherlands.

At the end of 2004 Kim-Lian released a DVD called Balance: The Experience. The DVD contains the music videos and live performances.

Because she has such an extraordinary look and acts funny, she was asked to join the presenters cast of Top of the Pops from BBC. This is not a common thing. Not many people are asked to help them present the program. And in that same time a more dynamic version of "Teenage Superstar" was released in the UK.

After splitting up with her record label CMM Records, because Kim-Lian refused to sing more children music, she worked on her second album. She wanted to produce it herself and was helped by the Swedish producer (and partner) Daniël Gibson. They built a studio at their home and started to write songs. Writing music was for Kim-Lian something she loved. They wrote with several writers from different countries, such as Sweden, England, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The first single of Just Do It was "Road to Heaven". And she showed that she did not need to make children music to have hits. It wasn't a massive hit, it peaked at #28 in the Top 40, but it was a start.

On October 12, she released "In Vain", the second single off the upcoming second album Just Do It. It is an emotional song where in the video she dies. After spending 6 weeks in the Tipparade (Dutch pre-chart) it was expected to chart in the Dutch Top 40 next week. But it did not enter.

Kim-lian has got plans to go abroad again with her album but nothing's sure yet.

Kim-Lian's first singles, the power-pop/rock 'Teenage superstar', became a huge hit in her homecountry The Netherlands very quickly and her second single 'Hey boy' followed the same path. Her third single, 'Garden of love', which was in FSC before, established her as an extremely talented allround artist. In May 2004 her first album, 'Balance', was released. This album was a true reflection of Kim-Lian's personality: original, energetic, multi-faceted. Her fourth single, 'Kids in America', was released in August 2004 and was accompanied, in usual Kim-Lian style, with an incredible videoclip. This shot to the top 10 charts within two weeks. Her singles, as well as 'Balance', the album, have landed in the charts in The Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the Philippines.
Her rapid success did not go unnoticed abroad. English broadcaster BBC was so impressed by her 'Teenage superstar' performance, that Kim-Lian was asked to co-host an episode of the famous music show 'Top of the Pops UK', something which very rarely happens. Such a compliment to Kim's talent as a TV personality as well !

She is also concentrating on her new passion; writing her own music. She's collaborating with songwriters in United Kingdom, Belgium and Sweden, as well as with her own band. Kim-Lian, a multi-media mega talent. A proven success in any arena, driven by passion, energy, girl power, dynamism, talent and humor. She won't settle for anything less.
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