THE NETHERLANDS

The Dutch entry was released March 4th with the premiere video show AND live performance of the song. Back in January  it was announced that Jeangu Macrooy would be representing The Netherlands on home soil. The song he will sing is called "Grow"

During his live performance he mainly stood and sang his song with the band and his backing singers behind him. He was wearing a rather colourful paint splattered effect jumpsuit. The video was also on the back screen. In the video Jeangu is looking at old photos of himself on a projector screen. He then gets ready to go out and starts walking through town. Newt thing we see him in a room with a group of people looking quite dour and serious - it seem to be some sort of therapy/counselling session. As the song nears the end the people in the session get more animated and look much happier.

Because of the style of the song and how the song is sung I can't see there being much of a stage show. Most of the song depends on Jeangu's clear and precise vocals as well as him emoting to the audience. There are also some points in the track where there are some very close harmories and it seems like he already has a tight band of backing singers with him that pulls off some of the many soaring notes in the middle and to try and make a fuller sound at the end.

The song starts off with a single long note which Jeangu sings over with the tune of the verses. The tune then starts to change as he reaches the chorus but there is no other instrumentation at all until verse 2 starts. This verse is much shorter than the first and is also where the harmonies come in, this is followed by the chorus and then there is a short break in proceedings. Just before the two minute mark the song shifts slightly and moves to the final part of the song. Here Jeangu repeats the same refrain until the end. It starts off gently  at first but as the drum beat joins in, their voices get bigger, almost gospel style, and then on the last word the song finishes.

In many ways you can see this as an extension of the themes from last year's winning entry. Jeangu's voice is so perfect for this style of song and the mood of the piece feels really authentic. The build up of the two parts of the song work really well although on first listen it can be a bit weird to think you are going in one direction and end up in another. personally, I find the ending very odd and too jarring. I am sure they could come up with a way of making the end much more final and aurally different so it feels like the end rather than a 'we have to stop here'.
I can see this getting a fair number of jury votes because of the songwriting and performance aspects. From many of the comments I have seen about this song, a lot of people find this song speaks to them and depending on how many that is and how many of these people vote for this could be a televote winner too... I wouldn't be upset if this was to win,I'd prefer something more off kilter and different to "Arcade" to win this year's contest. Looking back in recent history, home entries have not done well at Eurovision - and this is not always through lack of trying! At least this is a competitive home entry with a definite style and genre and has a really good artist at the helm.


Artist - Jeangu Macrooy
Song - Grow
Composers - Jeangu Macrooy, Perquisite
Lyricist - Jeangu Macrooy

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