Heintje
Dutch pop star is suffering from skin cancer
As a child he became famous under the name Heintje: Pop singer Hein Simons was diagnosed with black skin cancer.
© IMAGO/Future Image
Pop star Hein Simons, better known as Heintje, has had difficult weeks. He was diagnosed with black skin cancer.
Great concern for the Dutch pop singer Hein Simons (68), better known by his long-standing stage name Heintje: He himself announced in an interview with the magazine “Freizeit Revue” that he was suffering from black skin cancer. As a corresponding report from the portal “schlager.de” states, Heintje initially noticed a wound on his nose that had not healed. His family doctor then immediately sent him to a dermatologist, who then diagnosed him with cancer.
“It was malicious, they had to cut it out,” Simons continues. If the cancer had developed further, then even his eyesight would have been threatened: “Then the eye would be gone. You can really get scared,” said the musician. However, he was lucky because the cancer hadn’t spread yet: after about six months it was over, now everything just has to heal. “It takes time. I now have to go to the doctor at shorter intervals every few months,” explains Heintje. The singer wants to go on a Christmas tour again from December 2nd.
Heintje became famous thanks to the mega hit “Mama”.
Simons was best known in Germany for his hit “Mama”, which he presented for the first time in 1967 on the ZDF show “Der goldene Schuß”, hosted by Lou van Burg (1917-1986). He also appeared in several films whose leading roles were written directly for Heintje. He can also be seen in the cult film “Hurray, the School is Burning” alongside icons such as Peter Alexander, Hansi Kraus and Theo Lingen. After his voice broke in the early 1970s, his career largely came to a standstill. It was only in the mid-1990s that Heintje appeared again on TV music programs under the real name Hein Simons and has since established himself as a pop singer.