A2

Vuurwerk

Camille

Language: Dutch
Released: 2021
Genre: pop
Level: A2
Difficulty score: 573
Duration: 3:39

How to study this song

The card for “Vuurwerk” is built from 58 study entries at A2: 23 Dutch words, 11 adjectives and 24 verb forms. The glossary is the place to begin — dag, lach and traan are the song’s keywords. This one leans on its verbs: 24 distinct forms against 11 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.

The words of this song, in several languages

Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.

Vocabulary

NL	EN	ES	IT	FR	PT	DE
dag	day	día	giorno	jour	dia	Tag
lach	laugh	risa	risata	rire	riso	Lachen
traan	tear	lágrima	lacrima	larme	lágrima	Träne
hoop	hope	esperanza	speranza	espoir

What this song teaches you

Level · A2

Vocabulary words: 23
Adjectives: 11
Word combos: 16
Expressions: 13
Verb forms: 24
Quiz questions: 35

More Dutch songs at this level

Background

About the song

«Vuurwerk» («Fireworks») is a Dutch-language pop song by Camille, the stage name of the Belgian singer and actress Camille Dhont. It came out as a single on 26 March 2021 and gave its name to her first album, released in June of the same year. For many listeners in Flanders it was the song that turned a young television actress into one of the biggest pop names of the region.

Camille Dhont was born on 12 June 2001 in Wevelgem, in West Flanders. As a child she auditioned for The Voice Kids in 2013, but none of the coaches turned around. She kept singing, posted cover versions on YouTube and in 2017 joined the cast of the musical «De ridders van de ronde keukentafel». Her breakthrough came on television: from 2019 she played Camille Van Beem in «#LikeMe», a musical drama series for teenagers on Ketnet, the children's channel of the Flemish public broadcaster. In 2020 she released two duets with the Belgian producer Regi Penxten, «Vergeet de tijd» and «Vechter», before going solo with «Vuurwerk».

The credits of the official music video name four writers: Camille Dhont herself, Regi Penxten, Lester Senior and Stefaan Fernande. The video was published on the YouTube channel of Mostiko and has been viewed millions of times. The song is bright, fast dance-pop with a big sing-along chorus, built for radio and for concert halls full of young fans.

The lyric is a first-person love song about a turning point. The singer begins by looking back at everything she has lived through: the days, the laughter and the tears that made her who she is. She admits that she often felt small when things went wrong and when her hopes and chances fell apart. Inside her, the heart and the head fought an endless battle. Her heart was drawn to the other person, while her head refused to believe that this person could show her the way to a fresh start.

The chorus answers that doubt with one image. For the first time in her life she feels fireworks flashing through her body, and stars seem to fall just for the two of them. She says that she now lives for the person she loves, and the word «vuurwerk» is repeated again and again, as if the fireworks were exploding all around her.

The second verse shows how much has changed. Love still feels like an adventure, but she is no longer afraid. When the other person looks at her, it is as if her heart catches fire; her life is full of fire and the whole universe seems to burn. Each time the loved one sets off their fireworks, the sky turns the colour of diamonds. This time the heart and the head agree: her head finally says yes. She feels sparks crackling inside her, and every time she sees that person it is like being struck by lightning once more. The song ends with the chorus and the fireworks all around her.

Adjectives

NL	EN	ES	IT	FR	PT	DE
klein	small	pequeña	piccola	petite	pequena	klein
eindeloze	endless	interminable	interminabile	interminable	interminável	endlose

This card holds 9 more adjectives. You meet them when you play the song.

Verb forms

NL	EN	ES	IT	FR	PT	DE
wou	wanted	quería	volevo	voulais	queria	wollte
zijn	to be	ser	essere	être	ser	sein
heb meegemaakt	have been through	he vivido	ho vissuto	j’ai vécu	vivi	habe erlebt
heeft	has	ha	ha	a	tem	hat
gemaakt	made	hecho	fatto	fait	feito	gemacht

This card holds 19 more verb forms. You meet them when you play the song.

Did you know?

The title is a compound word, very typical of Dutch: «vuur» («fire») plus «werk» («work») gives «vuurwerk», «fireworks». Many Dutch compounds work like this, for example «huiswerk» («homework») or «kunstwerk» («work of art»). Dutch writes compounds as one word, where English often uses two.

«Wou» is a very common informal past tense of «willen» («to want»). The standard written form is «wilde», but «wou» is heard everywhere in speech and in songs. In the same way, «zei» is the past tense of «zeggen» («to say») and «wees» the past tense of «wijzen» («to point, to show»). The fixed expression «iemand de weg wijzen» means «to show someone the way».

Dutch has many separable verbs. «Tegenzitten» means «to go badly» and is used without a real subject: «het zit tegen» means «things are not going well», and in the past «het zat tegen». «Uiteenspatten» means «to burst apart», like a bubble or a dream; its past participle puts «ge-» in the middle: «uiteen-ge-spat». «Meemaken» («to experience, to go through») works the same way: «meegemaakt». And «inslaan» is what lightning does when it strikes: in a main clause the particle goes to the end, as in «de bliksem slaat in».

Two small prepositions show up with «heen»: «door me heen» means «through me» and «om me heen» means «around me». This pairing of a preposition before the noun or pronoun and a little word after it is called a circumposition, and it is a very Dutch way of expressing movement and direction.

Listen for «voor het eerst», «for the first time», and for «ook al», «even though». In fast, informal Dutch, especially in Flanders, «mijn» («my») is often pronounced «men»; in writing this is usually shown as «m'n». The adjective «eindeloos» («endless») becomes «eindeloze» before a noun: the s turns into a z when an -e is added, just as «boos» becomes «boze».

«Ster» («star») has the plural «sterren», with a doubled r to keep the vowel short. And the word «kosmos», «cosmos», is a loanword from Greek that Dutch shares with many other European languages.