Ben Saunders

Ben Saunders was a Dutch singer and tattoo artist who became a household name overnight when he won the first season of The Voice of Holland in January 2011. Born in London on 9 July 1983 to English parents, he moved to the Netherlands as a small child and grew up in Hoorn, North Holland. Fans knew him as Tattoo Ben, a nickname that followed him from the parlour floor onto national television.

Saunders and his older brother Dean started young. In the late 1990s the brothers appeared on talent shows under the name Daddy's Wish and featured in a KRO youth report. In 2000 they joined the short-lived pop group Follow That Dream, formed on RTL 4's Alles voor de band. The band's self-titled single reached number 25 in the Dutch Top 40 before the group split amid the Starmaker boom. In February 2003 the brothers entered the Nationaal Songfestival as The Brothers with Stand as One, finishing near the bottom of their heat despite praise for their singing.

Before The Voice, Saunders worked as a tattoo artist and ran a parlour in Hoorn. His blind audition of Kings of Leon's Use Somebody turned all the chairs. Coached by Roel van Velzen, he powered through live shows with soul covers that raced up the charts. If You Don't Know Me by Now and When a Man Loves a Woman both hit number one on the Single Top 100 in quick succession, a rare streak for a Dutch contestant still mid-series. In the final on 21 January 2011 he sang his own single Kill for a Broken Heart, covered If You Don't Know Me by Now again, and duetted with Duffy on Warwick Avenue. He won with 59 percent of the vote against Pearl Jozefzoon. A day later Dean won Popstars, giving the family a unique double.

Kill for a Broken Heart topped the Single Top 100 and climbed to number four on the Top 40. Debutalbum You Thought You Knew Me By Now (2011) went to number one and later platinum. Awards followed: three TMF Awards, an MTV Dutch Award for Best Dutch Act, Sky Radio's best newcomer, and a 100% NL Award. Heart and Soul (2012) reached number seven. He later appeared on De beste zangers van Nederland, played Barabbas in The Passion (2018) in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, and returned to entertainment television on Secret Duets and That's My Jam.

Saunders's life after the peak was complicated. In 2014 he joined the Satudarah motorcycle club, later banned in the Netherlands. In May 2015 he was arrested for assaulting a traffic warden in Hoorn and later received 180 hours of community service plus damages. He remained a familiar face in Hoorn and later Arnhem, where he opened a tattoo shop and recently moved to a traveller site. Friends and family described a man still tied to music and ink even when chart success cooled.

On the morning of 15 September 2026 Saunders was reported missing. Police issued a Burgernet alert matching a 43-year-old bearded man with extensive tattoos. A large search with dogs, divers and a helicopter focused on the Rijkerswoerdse Plassen near Arnhem and Elst. A body was found that afternoon. AD and other outlets reported that the body was Saunders and that foul play was ruled out. NOS, NU.nl, De Telegraaf and RTL covered the shock among fans who still associated him with that first Voice final. He was 43.

Saunders left a short, intense mark on Dutch pop: a tattooed soul voice who proved a new talent format could mint stars, and a brotherhood story that Dutch television still remembers. His recordings, especially Kill for a Broken Heart and the Voice-era covers, remain the soundtrack of that breakthrough winter.