I’ve made the song You&Me for my daughter Eline with Down syndrome (Ds) to let her know how much I love her and to raise Ds awareness. I went from shock and disbelief at birth to acceptance and love…but most of all I gained the insight that the negative way society and medics look at Ds is not true.

Ds is positive, Eline is positive and my only goal with the song is to reach as many people I can and by doing so making the world a tiny little better!

Please share the song if your moved by it and by doing so share the love. 

At birth a complete shock

In 2013, my lovely daughter Eline was born. At birth we discovered that Eline has Ds. This came as a complete shock, because we had done pre-natal screening and there were no anomalies.

Insights and biggest transformation ever

I went through the biggest transformation ever! Along the way I realised that the doom scenario society and medics laid upon me is not true. Eline brings so much joy into our lives.

Inspiration for a great song with a positive message

That inspired me to use my love for music and make a song, with the help of my friends,  just for her to let her know in my own way how much I love her. Family and friends who heard the song we’re moved and they encouraged me to spread the positive message publicly.

My story became our story

I’ve poured all my emotions in the song and wrote the lyrics exactly according to my experienced feelings. For me it is the ultimate love song, but I rap also about the dark side. I was afraid that people would find me a bad father  for not being happy from the start (first few weeks) and maybe wouldn’t get that it’s actually the greatest love song I could possibly write.

I was really surprised when a lot of other fathers recognized themselves in my story and wanted to support me by sending me videos of themselves and their child with Down Syndrome for the music video. By realizing that my feelings were not unique I felt better about myself as well.

Social impact

Because of the NIP-test, more future parents will have to make the decision whether to keep or abort a child with Ds. Is that an objective decision while society and medics continuously produce negative messages? Who is telling them the whole story, including the positive side?

I experienced first-hand that medics say very negative things about Ds, even after my daughter was born! That’s why this song is so important. Future parents must hear the positive side and keep it in the back of their heads in case they have to make that difficult decision.

Mission

I hope that everybody who listens to the song feels the love for our children with DS. To bring positivity around DS to balance out the negative. That people realize that people with DS aren’t that different form “regular” people and that they have a right to live. Moreover that they bring a lot of positivity in the world and that the world is a better place with them in it. Hopefully resulting in more acceptance of DS people worldwide and more love in the world generally.

About Thijs de Bruijn
Thijs “Kijoe” de Bruijn is a happily married, proud father of three from the Netherlands. He started rapping again under the name Kijoe inspired by his youngest daughter with Down Syndrome. Not a teenage rapper, but a man with a lot of life experience, a successful career, who raps about society, life and happiness….

Please share the song if your moved by it and by doing so share the love. 

More information can be found on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Kijoe.nl/