I'm an un-healable positive optimist.
From Andre Rieu
It is my personality alone that has brought back the waltz and made it a global craze.
I first picked up a violin aged five - I just assumed everyone played.
When I was 4 or 5, I attended my father's concerts. He very often played Strauss waltzes as encores and I saw something happening with the audience.
I have 120 people in my payroll without any government giving me any money. We live off the tickets and the records I sell. That is very unusual.
The waltz is a very important part of my life. It's a very important way for me to express my positiveness, bringing humor to the world.
Critics or musicians who attack me are jealous of my success and the fact that I make people feel so happy.
I am a showman in the traditional sense, but modern, too. I like to use sets and lighting to create magic.
When my twin grandchildren, Linda and Lyeke, were born two years ago, it changed me. I felt it was the essence of what life is about, and I cried all day. When my son Pierre, their father, was born I didn't cry like that.
Where would I be without Johann Strauss's beautiful 'Blue Danube?' Without this piece of music I wouldn't be the man I am today. It's a tune that brings out the emotion in everyone and makes them want to waltz.
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