NETHERLANDS

The Dutch entry was unveiled on March 7th with the video being premiered on youtube and had its first performance, albeit a more acoustic version, on popular Dutch show “De Wereld Draait Door” not long after. Back in January it was announced that former “Voice of Holland” contestant Duncan Laurence was going to be the representative. His song was unveiled as “Arcade”

The video is very simplistic and very ethereal. It mostly shows Duncan in a variety of poses and movements underwater where the whole thing looks and feels quite foetal. Although this fits the soud of the music it is slightly incongruous with the lyrics of the song. During his tv performance he was backed by a string quartet and a couple more backing singers and is very static. Unusally Duncan barely had any time down the camera as most of the shots were side-on or moving from side to side or zooming in from below.

The song has a slightly choral theme to it with songwriting hints to people like Sia and Florence and the Machine although this seems much less commercial. It starts with a delicate choir sound before the piano joins in. Duncan starts off quiet and slow before jumping into his higher register for the rest of the song. The chorus is in two parts, the first part much more lyrical and melodic the second part having emphasis on the beat and atmosphere. This cycle is repeated and this leads to a very gentle coda part before two more repetitions of the second part of the chorus, once only accompanied by drums and another but with a slightly different chord sequence in the background music.

Luckily we have a live version to judge this by which has helped me somewhat with this review. His voice at the very start seemed a little lacking but this could have been nerves. However his voice absolutely soars in his upper register which this shows off really well. The staging is a little static but I can imagine the water there from the video would go down really well. I would also like to have seen a dancer or too but I suspect that this might do into backing singers instead – unless they can prove the choir-like noise is a synthesised one. I am also a little scared that a live choir might not sound as good as it does in the production. Personally, I am not a fan of male singers doing falsetto, however well done and this is simply not my cup of tea.

Unfortunately semi 2 is already full of male singers AND ballads and this could be a little too gentle and flat to grab peoples attention, that said if anybody is going to vote sore something as technical and intricate as this it will be the jury. I am just not sure if this is a 'pick up phone and vote for it' kind of song which is half of the total vote and although you don't have to win both sides of the vote, you have to do well enough in both to get a consensus.

ARTIST –  Duncan Laurence

SONG – Arcade

MUSIC -  Duncan de Moor, Joel Sjöö, Wouter Hardy

LYRICS - Duncan de Moor, Joel Sjöö, Wouter Hardy