Part of Worm's Football Summer!!
Meindert Talma plays Celluloid Illusions / The Great Meindert Talma World Cup Football Show

Talma's solo album Celluloid Illusions will be released on April 10, 2026, by Excelsior Recordings. This LP/CD features nine sung (life) stories by Dutch actors, actresses, and directors from the 1970s and early 1980s.

The album contains two long ballads; about Hans van Tongeren (7:26) and about Sylvia Kristel (14:24) and also contains songs, mostly in the first person, about Paul Verhoeven, Rutger Hauer, Willeke van Ammelrooy, Monique van de Ven, Wim Verstappen, Andy Vrielink and Adriaan Ditvoorst.

As always with Talma, the performance is multimedia: all the songs are accompanied by visuals, as are all the short, entertaining introductions. Following the full performance of Celluloid Illusions, the Great Meindert Talma World Cup Football Show will feature the biggest Dutch hits from Talma's three football stars (Eenmaal Oranje (2012), Balsturig (2019), and Minna (2021).

The FIFA World Cup will be held in Canada, Mexico, and the US from June 11 to July 19, 2026.

Reviews of Talma's football songs:
Menno Pot in De Volkskrant : "Talma's football oeuvre is like a green, flowery oasis in the middle of the barren field of Dutch football music."
Klaas Knooihuizen in Trouw ( ): "He often zooms in on a detail, once in a while he tells a life story, and he always manages to move you. (…) It's enjoyable, even if you don't care about football."
Peter van der Heide in Dagblad van het Noorden / Leeuwarder Courant ( ): "It produces musical statues: not to be missed by football fans, entertaining enough for football haters."
Danny Koks in de Nieuwe Revu (****): "Cherish this collection of dull songs with a heart of gold."

Edwin Struis's live review
in the Nieuwe Revu (January 24, 2018): "(…) I held my breath. Was this eccentric supposed to entertain a football crowd of six hundred? (…) I was wrong, as it turned out a few hours later. His 'King of the Kluts' had already proved to be an absolute hit, but the highlight of the evening was yet to come. 'With a voice like a cutting torch, he wrapped the spectators around his finger,' wrote the Haarlems Dagblad reviewer a day later, and so it was. Meindert Talma only had to start the chorus of his song about Oekie Hoekema."