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The chansons are about human experiences, human emotions. About love, deep sadness, the fear of being abandoned, but also about the joy of relationships and love. These chansons invite us to dare to be real people. At first sight, the chansons do not seem particularly deep; they are generally not spiritual; they do not use complicated turns of phrase. They describe the ordinary events of life, the lives of ordinary people. But it is precisely this description of ordinary events and encounters that opens the shutters to reveal the greater themes of life such as selfless love, hope and thankfulness. We understand how these chansons are about our own lives and realize how they can unleash powerful human emotions. Charlotte Haesen, born in Amsterdam in 1987 and raised in the French-speaking part of Belgium, studied jazz singing at the Amsterdam University of the Arts. On a sunny Saturday afternoon she sang French chansons at Amsterdam’s Noordermarkt, where she was discovered by viola player Odile Torenbeek. Odile and Charlotte decided to put together a chanson programme anchored in a string quartet ensemble. Leading arrangers such as Paul Prenen and Wijnand van Klaveren then ‘arrayed’ the chansons around Charlotte’s own particular sound. The next step was the founding of Café des Chansons: Charlotte Haesen plus four musicians from the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. They perform gems of the repertoire, including the great French classics by artists such as Barbara, Gainsbourg and Piaf.