Early life Anouk Teeuwe was born on 8 April 1975, in The Hague, Netherlands. Anouk's interest in music began because her mother was a blues singer. Anouk initially sang at weddings and parties with the band Shotgun Wedding, prior to meeting Barry Hay from the Golden Earring, a friend of her ex-husband's, Edwin Jansen. Hay believed Anouk to have talent, and offered to write some songs for her, one of which was Mood Indigo; written in collaboration with George Kooymans (also from the Golden Earring). Breakthrough After she met Bart van Veen, her co-writer, the pair wrote a few songs. On 5 September 1997, she released her second single, Nobody's Wife, which remained at the top of the Dutch music charts for a number of weeks. Her debut album, Together Alone also turned out to be a huge success. In 1998, Anouk won two awards from Dutch music channel TMF (The Music Factory) in addition to an Edison award. During the summer, she played at various festivals. Her second album, Urban Solitude, was released in November 1999, and included the single R U Kiddin' Me. This song reached the Dutch Top 100. Shortly afterwards, Anouk went to the United States to pursue a record deal. Negotiations with her American label (Sony) ended badly, causing her to return to the Netherlands without a deal. She released a new song, Don't, and began touring the Netherlands in February 2001. In March 2001, she released another album, Lost Tracks, which contained acoustic versions and B-sides from older songs, and various duets with K's Choice singer Sarah Bettens and The Anonymous Mis. She was awarded the Popprijs award in 2001. In November 2002, the album Graduated Fool was released. This is the heaviest rock album in Anouk's career so far. Anouk received a Golden Harp in 2003. The following full length release is called Hotel New York (2004) and yielded a total of four singles: Girl, Lost, Jerusalem and One Word. Anouk at Dauwpop in 2006 In 2006 she won the 3FM award for best Dutch female singer.[2] In 2007, Anouk released Who's Your Momma, recorded with producer Glen Ballard. The first single, "Good God" was a success,[3] and became a playable song in the video game Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008.[4] In 2009 she released her album For Bitter or Worse. The song Three Days in a Row reached the 1st place in the Dutch charts.