Angelique Houtveen

Angelique Houtveen (Utrecht, 3 February 1986) is a Dutch radio-disk jockey at Sublime, music columnist and public speaker.

Personal Life

Angelique Houtveen grew up in Vianen with her parents and brother. At the age of nine she was diagnosed with ITP (Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) which forced her to spend most of her time inside in order to reduce the risk of injuries which could have led to internal bleeding. At this time she discovered how much she loved music and what it made her feel and she started to record her own radio programs with her My First Sony.

As a student she worked under the name of Angie-Le-Q as a disk jockey at clubs, where she mostly focused on the genres dancehall and reggae. Later on at GetMixed FM she and a friend laid the focus on soul music adapting the name Sunday Soul Sisters.

At the age of 32 she was diagnosed with the chronic disease endometriosis. She is still fighting for awareness for this disease.

Career

After completing her college study Media, Information & Communication at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, she was admitted to BNN University, BNN’s internal training program, on the first of January in 2011.

On Radio 6 from 2011 to 2013 she could be heard every night from Monday to Tuesday on the NTR program Nightshift and from 2014 to 2015 daily on the VARA lunch program Powered by Angelique. In 2016, she presented the daily program ClassX on FunX for a year.

In 2014 Houtveen made her debut as a table guest on Matthijs van Nieuwkerk's program De Wereld Draait Door. Later she also joined Margriet van der Linden's talk show M and the talk shows De vooravond and Op1. In the talk shows she mostly talks about music.

In November 2016, Houtveen began her weekend morning show for KRO-NCRV on 3FM every Saturday and Sunday from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m.

From September 2017, she presented the program Angelique every weekday between 2:00 p.m. (as of October 2018 1:00 p.m.) and 4:00 p.m.

In the same year, she got to take a seat in the Glass House during 3FM Serious Request 2017. In her last period on 3FM, her program under the name Angelique's Afternoon had moved to the weekend and for six months she did a second radio show called Solid Vibes with Angelique Houtveen on NPO Radio 2 Soul & Jazz on Friday nights in addition.

On January 9, 2021, she announced her departure from 3FM on Instagram.. It was later announced that as of March 1, 2021, Houtveen will host a new show at Sublime.

Since 2019, Houtveen has been hosting the two-page column Muziek.ENZO in the monthly magazine LINDA. in which she shares her monthly music tips and expertly provides some information about the single or album and the performer(s).

She is the co-writer of the book 'Liberté, égalité, Beyoncé'. Currently she is also writing her own book.

Houtveen is also a producer of several podcasts. In Angelique’s Voice Notes she talks about her thoughts of love, her boundaries, being sick and her life journey. In Affirmaties met Beats she shares positive empowering quotes in combination with soul beats of producers. With WOMEN.INC she has a podcast series Komt een Mens bij de Dokter in which she talks about medical care.

In addition, she sometimes speaks at events, gatherings and at schools about music and social issues. And she occasionally takes on the role of hostess at festivals and concerts for example recently, July 2022, again at the North Sea Jazz Festival.

In December 2022 she was a speaker at TedXAmsterdam Women where she spoke about the pressure of trying to prove yourself.

Opinions

Houtveen uses her position as a public figure to raise awareness for the challenges she had to face in her personal and professional life. As she suffers from the chronic disease endometriosis which affects every tenth woman this is a recurring topic on her social media platforms. To order to raise awareness and incentivise change, she also dedicated an episode of her podcast Angelique's Voice Notes to talking about her own experience with the disease. The topic also came up during a conversation with Corinne Ellemeet of the GroenLinks party on NPO Start

Related to her struggles with endometriosis, menstruation and its acceptance in society also plays a major role in her activism. She fights against the stigmatisation of women's experiences and for the normalisation of menstrual pain. Thus, she contributed a story to the novel "Ben je ongesteld of zo?" by Honorata van den Akker and Lieke Smets.

As a woman of colour Houtveen faces some challenges in the workplace and feels the pressure to prove herself. In interviews and in her TedTalk The pressure of trying to prove yourself she talks about the responsibility to represent that seems to come along with her position as one of few women of color in the radio business and the fear that her choices and behavior might impact the way people of similar backgrounds are being viewed. In order to fight those injustices she wants to encourage people to celebrate diversity. Creating an environment where mistakes can be made without them reflecting back on a whole group of people would improve society and could lead to a better future for the next generations. In approaching racism she often speaks from her personal experience especially in connection to working in a profession whhere there has historically been a lack of women of colour. Still, she also acknowledges the role structural problems play in creating and maintaining these issues. This is part of the reason why she advocates for establishing personal boundaries while also attempting to solve the overarching structural issues by using her position to change the public mindset.

Working as a woman in a field mostly dominated by men, Houtveen also stand up for women's rights. In an interview she tells that she noticed that at radio station 3FM her male colleagues were earning a higher salary than her, while they were doing the same work. SHe addresses this to her employer, highlighting that there should be equality between men and women and that women should get the same appreciation for the work they do.

Furthermore, she had a completely female team during the period that she was working at radio station 3FM.

Awards

On November 14, 2013 Houtveen won the Marconi Radio Award in the category "up-and-coming talent".

In the Volkskrant of December 28, 2013, Houtveen was named "Radio Talent of 2014" along with radio colleagues Sander Hoogendoorn and Frederique de Jong.

References

This article "Angelique Houtveen" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Angelique Houtveen. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---