Soesja Citroen took up her singing career in 1979. With her band she soon was to become a very well known appearance in Dutch jazz clubs and theaters and also at the North Sea Jazz Festival, at which she performed in 1981 for the first time. Next to that she did radio shows with the Metropole Orchestra and won a second prize at the Knokke Song festival.

She recorded a lot of albums. In 1980 To Build featuring Willem Breuker, 1981 Good enough for jazz with Nico Bunink and 1982 Key Largo with Cees Slinger. In 1983 Soesja Citroen sings Thelonious Monk came out, an album on which she firmly established herself as a lyricist. And in 1985 Angel Eyes with the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Rogier van Otterloo. She was to make more albums with that famous orchestra, Soesja Citroen sings Fred Astaire (1987) along with Soesja in Silk (1989), a beautiful ballad-cd conducted by Robert Farnon. In between she also produced the band-album Shall we Dance. In 1986 playing at the Yatra Jazz Festival in New Delhi and Bombay was one of the special highlights in Soesja's career. The other one was her concert in 1993 in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

On Soesja Citroen Band Live (1991) Soesja proves she's not only a great singer of ballads but also a wild woman on stage 'when the spirit moves her'. In 1994 Here and Now came out and Soesja had a tv-show in Ljubljana.
In 1996 Soesja performed successful again at the North Sea Jazz Festival and made her cd Songs for Lovers and Losers with Louis van Dijk and Hein Van de Geyn. The German jazz magazine Jazz Podium called Soesja an European Top Jazz singer and the American jazz magazine Jazz Times called her absolutely sensational.
In 1997 Yesterdays was released, a compilation of her three albums with the Metropole Orchestra. In 1998 Soesja recorded as singer/songwriter a new cd Song for Ma; an autobiographical cd with all songs of her own and special American guest
Michael Moore on clarinet. This cd and the subsequent theater-tour was highly acclaimed in the press.
The Canadian jazz magazine CADENCE in 1999 called the cd superb and wrote that Citroen deserves recognition as a composer.
In October Jazz Times wrote 'Dutch vocalist and songwriter Citroen shows herself a formidable composer'.
The new cd 'Soesja sings Citroen' CHR 70101 came out 2001, for this album Soesja wrote 15 new exotic and jazzy songs and she got an Edison Award 2002. I
n the summer of 2003 Soesja went on a tour of Java with concerts in Jakarta (2), Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. The tour was a great success and national newspapers raved about Soesja as an outstanding jazz entertainer who bewitched her audience with her melancholic voice.
The release of her new CD as singer-songwriter happened November 2005. Don't Cry Baby CHR 70127, with 16 own songs.

Discografie

To Build - Coreco 1980.
Good enough for Jazz - Varagram 1981
Key Largo - Turning Point - 1982
Soesja Citroen sings Thelonious Monk - Turning Point 1983, CD Timeless Records 1994.
Angel Eyes - Varagram 1984
Soesja Citroen sings Fred Astaire - Varagram 1987
Shall we Dance - Sunny Timeless 1987
Soesja in Silk - Varagram 1989
LIVE - Varagram 1990
Here and Now - Challenge 1994
Songs for lovers and losers - Challenge 1996
Yesterdays - Challenge 1997
Song for Ma - Challenge 1998
Soesja sings Citroen - Challenge 2001
Don¹t Cry Baby - Challenge 2005

Quotes

• Penguin Guide writers Richard Cook and Brian Morton awarded the maximum of 4 * and wrote in 2005 about Citroen:
  - Leading singer on the Dutch scene.
  - This is a hugely exciting album, worthy of the widest notice.
  - CD, which carries off its bruised romanticism with great conviction.
  - The title song Song for Ma is magnificent.
  - Time she was better known outside her native country.
  
• Bruce Crowther reviewed in 2004 the CD Soesja Sings Citroen:
  Soesja Citroen, a strikingly good singer from The Netherlands. She is also a very good songwriter as is demonstrated on this set as Soesja presents fifteen of her own love songs , all of which are melodically pleasing and have intelligent lyrics. Soesja's sound is mature and assured and the interplay with the clarinet and alto saxophone of Michael Moore is delightful.
  
• David Lewis wrote in CADENCE:
  The atmospheric ballad "Place of Silence" is a superb song that shows why she deserves recognition as a composer.
  
• Marcela Breton wrote in JAZZ TIMES:
  Dutch vocalist and songwriter Citroen shows herself a formidable composer.
  
• Patricia Myers wrote also in JAZZ TIMES:
  She's absolutely sensational and I hope she arrives on our side of the Atlantic very soon.
  
• The German jazzmagazine JazzPodium called Soesja: an European Top Jazzsinger'.
  
• Alex Henderson wrote in the All Music Guide:
  The thoughtful nature of her English lyrics on her originals seems all the more impressive when you take into account that English is not her native language.
• João da Penha, journalist, host of a radio show, author and professor, write articles and essays for many Brazilian cultural publications.
  I'm happy to inform your CD has been very well received by the listeners. By phone, as usual, they selected their favorite tracks : "Just another man" ( a lovely Brazilian touch ), "Don't cry baby", "Love can't be all fun" ( my favorite track; your interpretation is touching - I cried of emotion -, superb; the solos of Mr. van den Berg are impressive and touching too ), "Wise women know" ( Mr. Ouwehand without doubt is one of world's top bassists; well, you are backed by superb musicians ) and "Miles apart".
  I believe that with singers like you the brillant future of jazz vocal is guaranteed. You are one of the best jazz singers I've heard in the last years. The more I listen your voice, the more impressed I am. You are one of the undisputable jazz divas of our times, one of Europe's best jazz vocalists. And a good composer & lyricist. In short: you are outstanding and your album is a gift for those fans of good music.
  

Citroen Management,
Kattensingel 48, 2801 CC
Gouda, Holland.
E-Mail: scitroen@xs4all.nl
Tel.: +31(0)182-521947,
Mobile: +31 (0) 622437252,