Details On The Article

The article in Dutch starts by informing that Lena Zavaroni at the age of 10 performed the previous evening on TopPop with the song Ma! (He's Making Eyes AT Me) on the Dutch TV Channel AVRO.

the article writer was clearly not impressed and claimed only the English would be impressed by the performance but informed it had made it into the Top 10.

The article calls her mother an amateur singer and her father a professional musician. I find this distinction questionable…

The parents say they do not want to exploit their child, but that does not seem entirely true, as she travels the globe with them to give interviews, pose for photos, and appear on TV shows.

De Telegraaf (The Telegraph Dutch Newspaper), 16 April 1974

The quote is important as it shows that at lease one article from the press saw the "exploitation" for what it was something most of the world or at least the UK would take decades to see or at leased admit to and that Lena's parents was part of the "exploitation". Marking out the original Dutch article as something of importance in the story of Lena Zavaroni.

"It is also contains a number of errors as most of the time Lena was apart from her family but given how early the article is in the story of Lena, the issue of her being parted from her family would have not been know at that time by the media or public."

Robcamstone, 16 April 2026

The article has a photo of Lena at the miniature city of Madurodam near The Hague and claims that is how her managers wanted to introduce Lena to the Dutch public.

The final part of the article covers the English labour laws and suggests they are more lenient then the Dutch Laws.

Unrelated to the article but we know from over time Lena's manager would push and push and complain about the limits put on child performers in the uk

Robcamstone, 16 April 2026