Jaap Reesema

Jaap Siewertsz van Reesema (born on October 28, 1984), also known as Jaap Reesema or Jake Reese, is a Dutch singer-songwriter who shot to stardom after winning the third season of X Factor. Hailing from the small village of Terwolde in the Northern Netherlands, Reesema started off his music career as the frontman of Eurodance outfit Hermes House Band while studying law at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. In 2010, he was selected to participate on the third season of Dutch TV talent show X Factor, where he made it to the grand finale and wowed the judges with his rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” a cover that he later released as a standalone single and reached the top of the Single Top 100. As the result of his victory, Reesema won a recording deal with Sony BMG and soon headed to Brussels to start working on his first album. A collection of pop rock songs sung in both English and Dutch, Changing Man (2011), his major-label studio debut, failed to impress audiences despite its obvious commercial appeal and the singer stepped away from the spotlight for a while to focus on his academic life. The following years proved more fruitful, as he went on to collaborate with top-tier EDM artists like Hardwell (“Mad World”), David Guetta (“Show Your Love”), and KSHMR (“Carry Me Home”), as both co-writer and singer. But his greatest milestone arrived in 2018, when “Ellie,” his collaboration with Belgian DJ Regi, stayed at the top of Flanders’ Ultratop 50 chart for seven consecutive weeks. The pair followed this success with “Summer Life,” which peaked at Number 5 on the Flemish Ultratop in 2019 and the 2020 chart-topping, dance pop banger “Kom wat dichterbij.” Shortly after, Reesema took a break from the dancefloor and scored another Top 5 hit with “Nu wij niet meer praten,” a melodramatic pop duet with singer Pommelien Thijs that reached Number 4 on the Flemish charts. Jury member of the TV program Regi Academy since 2021 and team leader of DNA Singers in 2022, Reesema performed at the Royal Concertgebouw in 2023 an recorded his sophomore album Als je voor me staat, featuring the hit of the same name. In 2024, the singer collaborated with Gavin DeGraw on the bilingual "Laat Me Nooit Meer Los (Never Let Me Go)", before "Dag & Nacht" with Ronnie Flex and Trobi in 2025.