Esmée Denters | |
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Denters in 2009
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Background information | |
Birth name | Esmée Denters |
Born |
Arnhem, Netherlands |
29 June 1987
Genres | Pop, R&B |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instruments | keyboard |
Years active | 2006 – present |
Associated acts | Justin Timberlake, Honor Society, Chipmunk, Aggro Santos |
Esmée Denters (born 28 September 1988) is a Dutch singer and YouTube celebrity. Having started promoting herself as a musician on the video-sharing website in 2006, she covered songs by many artists including Justin Timberlake and Natasha Bedingfield. By mid 2008, at age 19, she became one of the first music artists to exceed 100 million views on YouTube. At the time that was more than 50 Cent's (91 million views) or Michael Jackson's (74 million views) YouTube channels. Only Britney Spears had more all-time total views: 181 million. Denters was then signed by Timberlake as the first artist to his label Tennman Records. In May 2009, she released her debut studio album, Outta Here.
Denters was born in Arnhem, Gelderland. She is the daughter of a wealthy couple, Hank Denters and Fenny Boonstra. Her parents are divorced. She has an older sister, musical actress Daphne Denters. Denters lived in Westervoort next to Arnhem until she was fifteen, and then moved with her mother and sister to Oosterbeek, Gelderland. She graduated from high school in Arnhem in 2006 and subsequently attended the HAN University of Applied Sciences where she was working towards a Bachelor of Social Work until she dropped out in her freshman year in February 2007 to join Tennman Records.