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© Brandpunt, Profiel - @KRO-NCRV (2010) Gerard Baars, program director of the Tros puts it vividly: 'Anyone with talent should not participate in Idols, but go live in Volendam and make sure that Jaap Buijs notices them.' Fons de Poel sketches the life and career of Jan Smit, the former Volendam child star who grew into a teen idol and phenomenon under the wings of manager Jaap Buijs. Jantje, nightingale of the Volendam children's choir, dreamed as a boy of becoming like Jan Keizer, singer of BZN. It was also Keizer who discovered the boy and wrote the first hit for him, a song about his grandmother that became a number one hit out of nowhere; the beginning of a miraculous rise. Albert Verlinde, Tros program leader Gerard Baars, Gerda Smit (his mother) and Jan Keizer describe the unusual life of the child star, who conquered not only the Netherlands but also the German-speaking area with at least 300 performances a year. Gradually, the singer would develop into a teen idol with a new repertoire, strongly helped by the successful reality soaps that the Tros devoted to the phenomenon. The influence of manager Jaap Buijs becomes clear, the man who had previously assisted The Cats and George Baker.