'''Robbie van Leeuwen''' (born 29 October 1944, [[The Hague]]) is a [[Netherlands|Dutch]] musician<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=Robbie van Leeuwen|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/949195/Rob-Van-Leeuwen/filmography}}</ref> who was [[guitar]]ist, [[sitar]]ist, background vocalist and main songwriter for Dutch bands, including [[The Motions (band)|The Motions]] and [[Shocking Blue]]. As of February, 2018, he is the only surviving member of Shocking Blue's best known four-piece lineup.
==Career==
In 1974 he released the successful single "Long hotHot Summer" with his new band Galaxy Lin. He was the founder and main composer for this band which released two albums, "Galaxy Lin" in 1974 and "G" in 1975. The singer was Rudy Bennett, with whom van Leeuwen already collaborated in The Motions. Galaxy Lin disbanded in 1976. Together with [[Rick van der Linden]], van Leeuwen founded Mistral in 1977. The group scored three hits during this period, "Jamie", "Starship 109" and "Neon City". The main instrument used was the synthesizer. The group produced three more singles in 1980, but these were not as successful as the former singles. In 1984 he released two more singles under the name Cat's Eye. Except for producing two singles for former Shocking Blue singer [[Mariska Veres]] in 1977, titled "Too Young" and in 1994, "Body and Soul", Robbie van Leeuwen withdrew from the music business and moved to [[Luxembourg]]. In 2013 he received the Buma Lifetime Achievement Award. As of 2018 he, again, lives in the Netherlands, in [[Wassenaar]].<ref>https://www.ad.nl/den-haag/het-mysterie-robbie-van-leeuwen~a1d7972c/</ref><ref>https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_van_Leeuwen</ref><ref>http://www.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/entry/Robbie+van+Leeuwen</ref>
His best-known compositions are [[Shocking Blue]]'s most famous songs, "[[Venus (Shocking Blue song)|Venus]]", which was in 1970 a US and UK No. 1 hit, "[[Love Buzz]]", which was covered by [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] and released as their first single, and "[[Scorpio's Dance|DeamonDaemon Lover]]".{{citation needed|date=February 2018}}
