Career

Smit's career started in season three of the Dutch TV talent show Idols, the Dutch spin-off of Pop Idol

Pop Idol

Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...

. In a surprising twist, Smit, a big audience favorite with her girl-nextdoor image and very popular (she even performed on Koninginnedag

Koninginnedag

Koninginnedag or Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Celebrated on 30 April , Koninginnedag is Queen Beatrix's official birthday. Though Queen Beatrix was born on 31 January, the holiday is observed on 30 April as it was the birthday of her mother and...

 for the Dutch queen

Beatrix of the Netherlands

Beatrix is the Queen regnant of the Kingdom of the Netherlands comprising the Netherlands, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and Aruba. She is the first daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. She studied law at Leiden University...

) lost in the final to Raffaëla Paton

Raffaëla Paton

Raffaëla Paton is a Dutch singer of Surinamese descent and the winner of the 2006 Dutch talent show Idols.-Biography:...

. That she was an early favorite and that her name was already trademarked before the competition started led to allegations that the show's outcome was predetermined. Despite losing the competition, she went on to start a music career; her first single, "Wake Up," was performed live for the first time in the municipality of Wijchen

Wijchen

' is a municipality and a town in the province of Gelderland, in the eastern part of the Netherlands, at .- Neighbourhoods :Neighbourhoods in Wijchen include:*Centre: Kloosterakker*Wijchen-Oost: Valendries, Oosterweg and Uilenboom....

 where, according to the local paper, she transformed herself from a run-off-the-mill singer into a diva, who gave the audience and the reviewer goosebumps.

She signed with the label The Entertainment Group in May 2006 after being turned down by BMG/Sony, which had an option to sign the runner-up in the competition. Her debut album, Fearless, was released in 2007 and peaked at #43 and stayed on the charts for six weeks. A single from the album, "Starts With Goodbye," was a modest success; another song on the album, "All Over Again," is a duet with boyband singer Ronan Keating

Ronan Keating

Ronan Patrick John Keating is an Irish recording artist, singer-songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. Keating debuted on the professional music scene alongside Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Stephen Gately, in 1994 as the lead singer of Boyzone. His solo career started in 1999, and...

.

A multi-talented artist, Smit announced after Idols that she would compete in an ice dancing

Ice dancing

Ice dancing is a form of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It was first competed at the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, but did not become a Winter Olympic Games medal sport until 1976....

 show on TV, "Sterren Dansen op het IJs," in which she reached the final, but again failed to win. Recently, she sang and danced in front of 1700 people, at an emotional ceremony where De Kindercompagnie, a baby store, received the 2008 ING Retail Award. More of her talents were revealed when she posed nude for the English men's magazine FHM

FHM

FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...

in 2008.

External links

• Official homepage of Floortje Smit