Coordinates: 50°51′4.47″N 5°41′26.65″E / 50.8512417°N 5.6907361°E / 50.8512417; 5.6907361

Maastricht ([maːˈstʁɪçt] (southern Dutch) or [maːˈstɾɪxt] ( listen) (northern); Limburgish (incl. Maastrichtian) Mestreech [məˈstʁeːç]; French Maëstricht (archaic); Spanish Mastrique (archaic)) is a city in the Netherlands. It is located in the southern part of the Dutch province of Limburg, of which it is the capital.

Maastricht is widely known as a city of history, culture, local folklore, education. Furthermore, it has become known, by way of the Maastricht Treaty, as the birthplace of the European Union, European citizenship, and the single European currency, the euro. The town is popular with tourists for shopping and recreation, and has a large growing international student population. Maastricht is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network.

Maastricht is situated on both sides of the Meuse river (Dutch: Maas) in the south-eastern part of the Netherlands, on the Belgian border (with both the Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloon region within easy reach from the city centre) and near the German border. The city is part of the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, the Euregio that includes Aachen, Hasselt and Liège in respectively Germany and Belgium.

James Last (also known as "Hansi") (born Hans Last, 17 April 1929, Bremen, Germany) is a German composer and big band leader. His "happy music" made his numerous albums best-sellers in Germany and the United Kingdom. His composition, "Happy Heart", became an international success in interpretations by Andy Williams and Petula Clark. According to the British Hit Singles & Albums book, he has reportedly sold in excess of seventy million albums worldwide.

Last's father was an official at the public works department of the city of Bremen and he grew up in the suburb of Sebaldsbrück. He learned to play the piano from the age of 12, then switched to double bass as a teenager. His home city was heavily bombed in World War II and he ran messages to air defence command posts during raids. At 14 he was entered in the Bückeburg Military Music School of the German Wehrmacht.

After the fall of the Nazis, he joined Hans-Gunther Österreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946. In 1948, he became the leader of the Last-Becker Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950–1952. After the Last-Becker Ensemble disbanded, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias, Freddy Quinn, Lolita, Alfred Hause and Caterina Valente.