Silvana Hildegard "Sylvana" Simons (Dutch pronunciation: [sɪlˈvaːnaː ˈsimɔns]; born 31 January 1971) is a Surinamese-born Dutch politician and former television presenter. She served as a member of the House of Representatives between 2021 and 2023 on behalf of BIJ1, an egalitarian anti-racist party founded by Simons in 2016.
She was born in Suriname and moved to the Netherlands while an infant. She was a dancer in the Amsterdam nightlife scene before becoming a VJ for the new music channel TMF in 1995. Simons left four years later to join SBS Broadcasting, where she presented reality television series (2000). She subsequently spent almost a decade at RTL Nederland, hosting the first few seasons of (2001–05) about home buying and the Saturday evening show Dancing with the Stars (2005–07). Starting in 2009, Simons worked some years in public broadcasting as a radio presenter on Radio 6 and for the association NPS.
She transitioned to politics in 2016, when she joined minority rights party DENK. Her career change followed her questioning of a term which she deemed racially insensitive during talk show the previous year. Her speaking out against institutional racism – and especially blackfaced companion – caused fierce criticism on social media platforms and racist remarks and threats. Simons left DENK after seven months to establish her own political party called Artikel 1, which was later renamed BIJ1. She did not win a seat in the 2017 general election, but she was elected to the Amsterdam municipal council the following year. Simons became the first black parliamentary leader in Dutch history following her election to the House of Representatives in 2021.
Early life and education Simons was born on 31 January 1971 in the Surinamese capital of Paramaribo to Wilfred Hugo Leeuwin (born 1928) and Roline Yvonne Kerk (born 1945). She was raised without her siblings even though her father and her mother had fifteen children and one child, respectively, from previous relationships. The family came to the Netherlands when Simons was aged one and a half and lived in the Amsterdam neighborhoods Kinkerbuurt and Osdorp. She moved to the North Holland city of Hoorn another ten years later, growing up in its neighborhood Grote Waal. Her father worked as a bookkeeper for an insurance company, while her mother was employed by IBM. In her childhood, Simons rode horses and danced. She had started dancing lessons at the age of seven and later did preparatory training in Amsterdam for the ballet academy, dreaming of becoming the first black soloist of the Dutch National Ballet. She went to the secondary school RSG West-Friesland, initially studying at vwo level, but she later switched to havo.
At the age of fourteen, Simons moved out of her parents's house after her father had told her to leave if she did not want to abide by his rules. At first, she stayed at her half-sister in Amsterdam, but she later spent time in a youth shelter and in lodgings with assistance. During that period, she attended the Amsterdams Lyceum and the Spinoza Lyceum, among others, but never graduated. Simons also went to the Lucias Marthas Institute For Performing Arts and the Hairdressing Academy, finishing neither school. When she was twenty years old, she was admitted to the show and musical department of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, but she dropped out shortly after the start of the program because of her first pregnancy.
Entertainment career Dancing and early television career (1989–2000) Simons began her career in 1989 as a dancer for the Amsterdam nightclub iT and during performances of musicians such as CB Milton and Grace Jones. She went on tour with 2 Brothers on the 4th Floor and performed as backing for UB40 at the World Liberty Concert in Arnhem. Simons also appeared in commercials for Pepsi, Philips, and Victoria Vesta. She did a screen test for radio and television executive Lex Harding in 1992 after he had seen her dance in the Veronica music program Countdown. Harding asked her a few years later to join the new musical channel TMF. Simons accepted and started as VJ and interviewer at its launch in May 1995. She later gave up dancing to focus on her television career. On TMF, Simons presented the show Sylvana's Soul, which helped popularize R&B in the Netherlands and earned her the nickname "Dutch Queen of R&B". She also recorded the single "Get Close To You" with fellow VJs Fabienne de Vries, Bridget Maasland, and Isabelle Brinkman as part of the music group The Magnificent Four. It reached position sixteen in the Dutch Top 40 and spent five weeks in that chart, but Simons has told that she was unable to sing and was mostly responsible for backing vocals. She became a board member of Mixt, a foundation attempting to combat racism through music and the organizer of the annual pop festival Racism Beat It, in early 1999.
Simons left TMF in 1999 and joined SBS Broadcasting later that year, presenting Sexquiz on the beach, a new weekly couples quiz involving stripping candidates, starting in September. She also hosted the program (Police snapping) and the first season of reality competition , which was similar to Big Brother and which took place in a bus. Next to her job at SBS, Simons presented a radio show on Radio 538, and she wrote columns for the Dutch edition of Playboy and for the short-lived More! Magazine. The latter was launched by TMF in May 1999 with an issue featuring Simons and two of her colleagues naked on the cover.
RTL Nederland (2000–09) She abandoned SBS Broadcasting in favor of RTL Nederland – then called Holland Media Group – and replaced Beau van Erven Dorens as host of the afternoon news magazine RTL Live in September 2000. The show was anchored by Minoesch Jorissen on Mondays and Tuesdays and by Simons on Wednesdays and Thursdays. RTL Live was canceled in May of the following year as a result of dwindling ratings. In the meantime, Simons had also moved her column from Playboy to Veronica Magazine, where it would remain until 2002, and had left her radio show at Radio 538 to work for Noordzee FM in March 2001. She had two shows on that station, Sylvana and Sylvana's Soul, which were broadcast on Friday and Saturday evenings, respectively.
Simons started presenting her second show for RTL Nederland in November 2001, when (TV real estate agent) debuted. She was the sole host of the program, in which she assisted people in their search for a new home. It was renewed for several new seasons. At the same time, she co-presented the Monday evening show (With all his power), in which she and two other women interviewed male guests, in early 2002 and the program (Your real age) with John Williams starting in May 2003. In the latter show, participants performed a RealAge test to find out how healthily they had been living. Simons also became the sole host of the book program (Cover), which first aired in April 2004. At , she was joined by Sybrand Niessen that same year. In 2005, she hosted the hidden camera show (Famous and watched) and the quiz show (Slow and steady wins the race), based on the British Perseverance.
When television franchise Dancing with the Stars was brought to the Netherlands, Simons and Ron Brandsteder became the hosts. It debuted in August 2005. The first season finale was watched by 2.7 million people, and the show was nominated for a Golden Televizier Ring. It had been announced shortly before the first airing of Dancing with the Stars that Simons would be replaced by Marilou le Grand as host of . Besides, she became an ambassador of development aid agency Simavi around that time. She had already been in the same role at Stichting Pink Ribbon, which raises awareness of breast cancer, since 2004. Simons co-hosted the second season of Dancing with the Stars in the first half of 2006. She also presented three reality television shows later that year: (Pack up and dream away), in which people went on their dream holiday; (Successor wanted), in which she helped family business owners find their successor; and (How pretty is your street?), in which residents gave their street a makeover. was canceled after three episodes due to low ratings. Simons presented a third season of Dancing with the Stars in early 2007 as well as the new RTL 5 reality show Ex Wives Club along with two other hosts. In December, she replaced Chazia Mourali as the presenter of Char, a show with American self-proclaimed psychic medium Char Margolis. Simons's last episode of Dancing with the Stars, a special to promote Plan International, aired days later.
It was reported in January 2008 that RTL Nederland had ended Simons's contract. Several new presenters had recently become part of the media network following the disbandment of TV channel Tien. She did continue hosting Char, and she co-hosted the daily RTL 4 program (The Netherlands leaves) with a dozen other presenters in the summer of 2008 about people going on their holiday.
Radio 6 and other activities (2009–2015) Simons started working for public broadcasting in 2009. She was given her own two-hour radio show in July called Sylvana's Choice, which aired on jazz station Radio 6 on weekdays, and she returned to television in September with a music-related TV show for NPS with the same name on Sunday afternoons on Nederland 2. Simons also started hosting the Saturday late evening talk show Sylvana in April 2010 on Nederland 1. Besides, she co-presented live television and radio coverage of the North Sea Jazz Festival, and she presented (The black list) about black music annually. News broadcaster NOS described her as the face of Radio 6. Sylvana's Choice was canceled in 2010, but she later received a Tuesday evening slot for a show called Soul & Jazz. She permanently left Radio 6 at the start of 2014, while remaining the host of North Sea Jazz Festival coverage and on television.
Next to her work for Radio 6, Simons started appearing as a recurring sidekick on talk show in 2012, and she participated in the celebrity dancing contest Strictly Come Dancing, part of the same franchise as Dancing with the Stars. She was coupled with professional dancer Redmond Valk, who was later replaced by Aerjen Mooijweer because of an injury, and they were the season's runners-up. In late 2012, Simons presented the three-episode music series Puro 43 Music Sessions on RTL 8. She later also worked as a public speaking and personal leadership coach as co-owner of The House of Power. Simons participated in the theater tour LULverhalen (Dick stories), in which women talked about an either literal or figurative dick, in 2015. She was uninvited after she had talked about her opposition to – companion with blackface – during her first performance, causing some audience members to walk out of the performance.
Political career DENK (2016) Simons has told that she decided to publicly speak out against institutional racism following a May 2015 incident and the reactions it had brought about, which included fierce criticism on social media: in an episode of , presenter Martin Šimek used the word (darkies) in a discussion about immigrants, causing Simons to question him on his usage of the word. The described 2015 as the year in which Simons had become the figurehead of the Dutch black community because of this event and her opposition to , whom she had protested at the national arrival of in Meppel.