Serious Request

Serious Request-huis in 2006

Serious Request is a project by Dutch radio station 3FM in which they collect money for projects of the Red Cross. Three DJs live in a house of glass for six days (5 days in 2004) located at the Neude in Utrecht without anything to eat in this whole period. In 2007, the Glass house was located on 't Plein in The Hague. Meanwhile they play songs requested by people who listen to the radio and those who take time to visit the house. With the requests the listeners donate a certain amount of money that is reliable for the person(s) in question. Furthermore lots of notable Dutch people are helping the project outside the house. There is also an auction held every year. The project was held for the first time in 2004 and has been held every year since and takes place during the week prior to Christmas. Each year one track is adopted by the DJs as the "goed gevoel plaat" ("good feelings track"). These tracks are seen as the unofficial theme songs and were not chosen before the project started, but were automatically created as the week progressed.

Request on Tour 2003

'Request on Tour' was a pre-edition of Serious Request. In the last three days of 2003 a "Request bus" was touring the country to collect money for Villa Pardoes (a holiday resort for children with a life-threatening illness, which is part of the Efteling) by playing requested songs in exchange for money. In total, €16,000 was collected that year.

Serious Request 2004 ('Jouw druppel op een gloeiende plaat')

Star DJs Rob Stenders and Ruud de Wild left 3FM during 2004. They were replaced by Giel Beelen and Wouter van der Goes. To fill in the gap coordinator Florent Luyckx started looking for an alternate programming schedule. Due to this switch he said the radio station was vulnerable, especially in December. When the Beslan school hostage crisis ended, the radio station decided to do something for the casualties and their relatives. However, the humanitarian organization related to the crisis told them they did not need any money. When the station contacted the Red Cross they were told that there is much help needed in subjects that not always get into the news, like the situation in Darfur. This became the first theme for the Serious Request project. Between 20 and 24 December 2004 the first Serious Request took place. Wouter van der Goes, Claudia de Breij and Giel Beelen were the DJs living in the house. They made a radio program for five days, 24 hours a day, without eating anything as a token of solidarity to those in Darfur. In total €916,000 was collected and the show was awarded the Marconi Award 2004-2005 for best radio show of the year. This year's theme song was Galvanize by the Chemical Brothers.

Serious Request 2005 ('Red een kind in Congo')

Between 19 and 24 December 2005 another house of glass was built at the Neude in Utrecht. This time those inside the house were Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Wouter van der Goes. They were collecting money for children in the Republic of Congo, resulting in a total amount of €2,203,549 with €1,000,000 of this donated by the Dutch government. The show was awarded the "Gouden Radio-Oortje" 2006 for best radio show of the year. The theme song for 2005 was "Multiply" by Jamie Lidell.

Daily scores

day		collected
1	19 December	€ 53,573
2	20 December	€ 137,877
3	21 December	€ 251,281
4	22 December	€ 414,552
6	24 December	€ 2,203,549

Serious Request 2006 ('30 miljoen landmijnen, daar kun je niet omheen')

Inside of the 2006 house

Gerard Ekdom and Sander Lantinga doing their job

In 2006 the project was held for the third consecutive time. Like the other years a house of glass was built at the Neude in Utrecht. This time the project collected money for casualties of land mines in the world. Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Sander Lantinga were elected by the listeners to live in the house from 19 to 24 December 2006.

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende closed the door on 19 December, which started the project. He told the DJs and the listeners that the Dutch government will donate another €1,000,000 to the project, like they did in 2005, but only when the Dutch people collect at least as much money.

Election

Between 4 en 8 December 2006 listeners to 3FM were able to vote for their favorite DJs to enter the house on the 3FM website. They were able to vote for Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom, Claudia de Breij, Paul Rabbering, Coen Swijnenberg, Sander Lantinga and Michiel Veenstra. Eventually Giel Beelen, Gerard Ekdom and Sander Lantinga were elected.

Daily scores

day		time	collected
1	19 December	4:30 pm	€ 61,481
2	20 December	4:30 pm	€ 189,935
3	21 December	4:30 pm	€ 353,405
4	22 December	4:30 pm	€ 687,151
6	24 December	5:50 pm	€ 2,648,495

• Total amount including a € 1,000,000 donation by the Dutch government

Music for Life (Studio Brussel)

Apart from 3FM also the Belgian radio station Studio Brussel helped in the same project. It was the first time they were participating in the project. The DJs of both radio stations contacted each other every now and then. In Belgium another house of glass was built in the city of Leuven and the DJs that lived in there were Peter Van de Veire, Tomas De Soete and Christophe Lambrecht. Their total after six days was € 2,419,426, with € 200,000 from the Flemish government and a double up from Federal government, which brought the total for both projects at € 5,067,921

Sponsor walk

To collect even more money for the project a sponsor walk was organized. DJ Claudia de Breij walked together with her sidekick Hildedepilde (Hilde Brontsema) from the Belgian house to the Dutch house. Otto-Jan Ham of Studio Brussel did the same, but in the opposite direction. During the distance of 211 km listeners could sponsor the walk by donating per kilometre, but could also offer them a place to stay the night or something to eat. Both runners left the houses in the morning of 19 December and arrived at their locations in the afternoon of 24 December. Claudia de Breij collected € 31,511 during her sponsor walk.

Theme song

Chelsea Dagger by the Fratellis was unofficially named the theme song of the project by the DJs. The song became popular in no-time and in the night of Saturday 23 to Sunday 24 December the song was massively requested and played six times within a four hour time span.

Serious Request 2007 ('De wereld schreeuwt om drinkwater')

The 2007 version moved to The Hague. The three DJ's who entered the glass house were Gerard Ekdom, Rob Stenders and Michiel Veenstra. Coen Swijnenberg hitchhiked from The Hague to Leuven to Geneva and back, carrying a bucket containing 15 liters of water. Sander Lantinga and Giel Beelen, last year's occupants of the house, decided not to enter it beforehand and were unavailable to be chosen: instead they did tasks or errands for whoever bids the most money.

The charity for 2007 was safe drinking water for the 1,2 billion people on earth who have no acces to good water. The event began on December 19 2007 and was opened by Prince Willem-Alexander.

Instead of donating €1,000,000 like previous years, the Dutch government announced to double the money collected by the public.

The themesong in 2007 was Let's Dance to Joy Division by The Wombats.

Daily scores

day		time	collected
1	19 December	4:45 pm	€ 102,360
2	20 December	4:45 pm	€ 248,982
3	21 December	4:35 pm	€ 476,337
4	22 December	4:35 pm	€ 842,243
6	24 December	7:40 pm	€ 5,249,466

• Total amount including doubling by the Dutch government

Music for life (Studio Brussel)

Again the Belgium Radio Station Studio Brussel took part in the action. From the Martelarenplein in Leuven, DJ’s : Peter Van de Veire, Tomas De Soete en Siska Schoeters, collected € 3.353.568,- from the Belgium listeners, thats including € 300,000 form the Flemish government.

Also from Leuven DJ Otto-jan Ham will leave for The Hague and Geneva with a bucket of water. without any money he must finish the trip without spilling any water.

Spontaneous ideas from normal people grow out to big proportions, A Special transport took of from Essen. On board a Pool with 20,000 litre of water. 10 swimmers will take turns and swim during the trip of 24 hours. Collecting €14,000,--

Couleur Terre (Couleur 3)

Apart from 3FM and Studio Brussel also the Swiss Radio Station Couleur 3 from Geneva joint the project. Their Glasshouse was located on the Rue de la Rôtisserie in Geneva. In their first year they collected € 151.000, - by playing request songs on the radio. DJ’s Yann Zitouni, Emilie Gasc-Milesi and Michel Ndeze where hosting 6 days of radio for 24 hours a day.

Serious Request 2008 ('Een vluchteling is nergens zonder jou hulp')

For the 2008 edition of Serious Request the Glass House will be placed on the Grote Markt in Breda, with dj's Giel Beelen, Coen Swijnenberg and Paul Rabbering entering the Glass House. The collected money will be donated to help refugees all over the world . Sweden will participate with their Glass House placed in the town of Malmö in the south of Sweden - there the project goes by the name "Musikhjälpen", "Music Aid". Because of Swedish Christmas celebrations the Swedish start one week earlier with their broadcasting.