What one image cannot do. Dutch singer Marco Borsato (57) appeared on the cover of the Dutch weekly magazine Story at the beginning of this month with a photo in which, according to the magazine, he “seems to be enjoying life quite a bit”, a ‘fun’ way of saying that the fallen singer nowadays goes through life a few kilos heavier. However, his lawyers and intimates claim otherwise: things are not going well for him at all.
The cover of the Dutch ‘Story’. — © Story Netherlands
The 57-year-old Dutchman is still waiting for the verdict in the court case at the end of 2021, in which he was tried as the perpetrator for inappropriate behavior with a minor. Borsato will not know until 2025 whether he will be found guilty. In the meantime, the Dutchman lives quietly in his penthouse in Alkmaar, northwest of Amsterdam.
His mother Mary (78) occasionally comes to the fore to talk about her son. In September last year, she was firmly convinced in Private that her son “will come out of this affair well.” “I just wonder what condition he will be in then. His career is ruined. Everything he has built up all these years has been destroyed in a few days. His life, and that of the people around him, has become one big bad dream. I don’t know if, when all the trouble is over, he will be able to start again.”
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Borsato’s band members follow the same line of thought. “I’ve always tried to keep in touch and that seemed to work out well at first,” one musician told Story. “But I haven’t heard from Marco in the last year. That’s not a good sign. We have the impression that he is abandoning the idea of being on stage again soon.”
Borsato’s children themselves do not want to say too much about their father. “We know a little more than what is being said.”
Puffer fish
Now that the photo of the heavily weighted Borsato has surfaced, the once very popular singer is again being harshly commented on in the Dutch media. According to media journalist Rob Goossens of the TV show RTL Boulevard, one photo does not immediately mean the worst. “You can take a photo of anyone from which you can conclude that someone is doing terribly. While in real life two minutes later you think that person is living a great life.”
“I don’t know if he will be able to start again after the trial”
Mary Borsato
Mother Marco Borsato
Mom Mary Borsato also shares that opinion and reassures fans. “We enjoy every day and Marco loves to cook. He can do that like no other. We also laugh a lot.”
READ ALSO. How a girl’s diary finally pushed the biggest star in the Netherlands off the pedestal
But Lisane van Sadelhoff, editor at RTL Nieuws, believes that there is more behind the image. “The underage girl in the indictment is in the waiting room of our justice system, caught in an interwar period between prosecution and verdict. During that same waiting period, Marco has become a pufferfish. His photo shows: misery crawls under someone’s skin, into someone’s body.”
Italy
In any case, the chance seems small that we will see Borsato in many concert halls or even the Sports Palace after his trial. And certainly not in the streets of Alkmaar, the singer’s home base. According to people close to the family, Borsato would push for a departure from the Netherlands if the lawsuit turned out positively. He is an avid diver and could easily get his money’s worth on Bonaire and Curaçao, but of course it is teeming with Dutch people there.
Marco Borsato during a concert in the Antwerp Sportpaleis in 2011. He played a total of 53 times in the concert hall. — © Koen Bauters
Italy then, the homeland of his ancestors? “Marco himself speaks the language fluently and Senna, his youngest son (22), actually wants to go there too. “After a possible acquittal, I do not see that anything would stand in the way of his leaving for Italy,” said a close person.
READ ALSO. Daughter Marco Borsato supports her father after persecution, but encounters a lot of criticism: “This is highly inappropriate”
In the meantime, there is no complete radio silence from Marco Borsato: every now and then the Dutchman shares something via his social media, such as a message of support to his daughter Jada (21). The youngest member of the Borsato brood released her latest single with Blik op jou last Friday and does not rule out a duet with her father at HLN. “We’ve never talked about it before, but if it depends on me, right away. A duet with him, perhaps in Italian, is still on my bucket list.”
When and if Borsato will come to the fore again is a question that will remain pending until the trial. And so it seems that saying goodbye is slowly becoming a reality.