For almost two months, Nydia Breeveld’s office was anything but quiet. Participants and the production team of Telesur Got Talent 2026 walked back and forth in preparation for the shows. Now that the hustle and bustle is over, a cup of coffee sits on her desk in the office that was once her mother’s house.
Text Audry Wajwakana
Image private collection
Breeveld takes the time to look back on a production that returned after seven years and into which she puts her heart and soul. This edition also includes the loss of her father, guru and sounding board Borger ‘Bo’ Breeveld, who has been involved in the program since the first edition. Despite the sadness of his death on August 10, she tells enthusiastically the True Time about what the talent show brings about among young people, but also about what could be improved.
“I just see Got Talent as a stepping stone to continue in my career”
Natin student Kimany Nelzon
History
The return of Got Talent cannot be seen separately from the long history that Breeveld has with the program. That history started in 2007, when Ferranto Dongor from Telesur approached her to develop a talent show. The program was initially to include sports, games, singing, dancing and more. “All that together wouldn’t work and I told him that we would have to choose,” Breeveld remembers the conversation with Dongor.
She replaced the proposed secondary school students with secondary school students and canceled sports and games. The concept of music, dance and acting was approved and she was then also asked to do the production.
The first edition was in 2008 with seven schools in the Amos sports hall and Stephen ‘Wesje’ Westmaas (1971-2011) as MC. The show was free, but there was hardly any audience. The production was also broadcast on television. “Shows one through four really had me biting my nails a bit. Is this going to be anything?” she recalls, laughing.
Interest grew from the fifth show onwards. The show later moved to the slightly larger Anthony Nesty Sports Hall. Although ‘Wesje’ was already known as a presenter for his humor and interaction with the audience, Breeveld attributes the growth and popularity of the program mainly to the students themselves. Because schools participate as teams, they brought their own supporters with them.
Got Talent as a springboard
Breeveld’s production company provided the show until 2011. The editions from 2012 to 2015 were done by a different company. In 2016, Breeveld was asked again to produce the show and change the concept. “I said the concept is still good because it is one extraction formula. What is simply needed is a good producer.”
In 2019 she was allowed to make the program again, but a year later Covid-19 came and it was ultimately halted for seven years. The return is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Youth Development and Sports, Telesur and other partners.
Breeveld looks back with pride at what former participants have achieved with their talent. She mentions, among others, Rashidi Sanches, who has his own singing school, and Kevin Thompson, who has performed on international stages with his dancing talent. “And there are others who are still working on their talent.” She calls them her ‘Got Talent babies’ because she worked intensively with them.
Participants in the 2026 edition also look back with satisfaction. Kimany Nelzon from Natin and Safaar Faerber from Havo 4 each experienced an intensive competition in their own way. Nelzon, an actor even before his participation, experienced one of his highlights during the eighth show on the theme ‘Mining’, in which he delivered a monologue about victims of illegal mining.
The rehearsals were tough, but they also gave him a new discovery. He had never really danced with an artificial leg, but during the show he discovered that he can. He also discovered that he has a bass voice when singing. “I just see Got Talent as one stepping stone to continue in my career,” he says the True Time.
For Faerber, participation was mainly about collaboration and communication. Although dancing was not his strong suit, he also showed himself in singing and acting. Natin won the 2026 edition; Havo 4 was eliminated in the fifth show.
Changing living environment
The biggest change Breeveld has seen over the years is the generation itself. Today’s young people are growing up in a very different time than the participants of the first edition. “We used to have none AI, ChatGPT and Google. And now a world has opened up for them, because they can simply get all the information from there.”
She also incorporates this changed living environment into production. With each edition she looks again at what concerns young people of that age. This is reflected, among other things, in the intro act, which is adjusted every year.
The 2026 edition included ten concepts that were in line with social themes that were central to the first ten shows. The participants worked on these topics themselves and thus helped shape the content of the show. That is also why, according to Breeveld, Got Talent is not completely predetermined. The young people who participate give the show a different interpretation every year.
During the preparation, we look at which songs the participants want to sing and what they want to dance to. These choices are incorporated into assignments and acts. “You make Got Talent while you make it,” says Breeveld. Young people therefore largely determine what ultimately happens on stage.
Approach
Yet there is also criticism. For example, some viewers sometimes find the presentation artificial, because some were read aloud. Breeveld acknowledges that. “The texts were written by me here in the office and given to the presenters.” The intention was that they would present the show in their own words based on the texts.
The camera images during the livestream were also criticized. Breeveld does the production and ATV the camera direction and shot list based on her script. She tried to indicate which camera angles were needed and even drew how she thought the cameras should be positioned.
Whenever someone compliments her on the show, she invariably asks, “Where did you see it?” Because, she says, “when you’ve been there, it’s a completely different experience than when you see it on television.”
Her own standards are now high, partly due to the professional standards that her father passed on to her. She does not consider any edition to be a complete success. “For me, things can always be better.” There remains satisfaction after every show, but she estimates it at about 51 percent.
Deployment sometimes causes concern
That high standard sometimes clashes with a working method that Breeveld does not always consider professional. She mentions the lack of preparation and rehearsal, changing teams and people who sometimes seem to take the work too easily. “People think: ‘We’re going to do it quickly. And we already have it on paper. So let’s go’. But then I think: ‘No, that’s not how it works’.”
She prefers to have a permanent team that works with her all the time, so that everyone speaks the same language and production improves. “Boi, that would be manja,” she says, referring to a statement her father often used.
“If you have been there, it is a completely different experience than when you see it on television”
Producer Nydia Breeveld
During the production of each edition of Got Talent, she works intensively and does not do other productions. It frustrates her when others handle their part of the work less intensively. “That is still missing in Suriname. Professionalism.”
She hopes that Got Talent will continue to exist and that more will be invested in its production. Ultimately, for her, it’s all about the young people who, thanks to the program, dare to do something they previously did not dare to do. “For those children who finally dare to sing and make their voices heard. Or dare to dance. For them I would for ever more doing.”
