NETHERLANDS 2025

The Dutch song was revealed on February 27th with the song and video release on online platforms and a mass premiere across all radio stations in the Netherlands. In December 2024, AVROTROS revealed that they had internally selected their singer and the chosen song would soon be released at a later date. Going to Basel is Claude with the song "C'est La Vie" (That''s Life)

Claude (pronounced 'cloud') Kiambe was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2002, when he was nine, he, his mother and siblings fled to the Netherlands and stayed at an asylum centre in Alkmaar before moving to Enkhuizen where he finished his education. In 2019 he entered The Voice Kids, getting to the battle rounds. He then took part in the " ARE YOU NEXT?" talent show, which won him a record deal. With producer Arno Krabman and songwriter Joren van der Voort, they wrote the Dutch-French song "Ladada (Mon dernier mot)" which reached number 1 in the Dutch Top 40. He has won the 3FM Award for Best Newcomer and Qmusic Top 40 award for Best Artist. He has 7 singles to his name and his debut album was released at the end of 2024. His music is styled in the pop and chanson genre but his multilingual lyrics and African influence makes his sound very individual.

The video intersperses views of a small boy with Claude and his dancers. The dancing is very quick, the style is heavily gestural and has a modern commercial and African flavour. The dancers' outfits are almost mis-matched, while Claude is dressed casually, but smartly, in trousers and buttoned shirts. Near Then the boy, who mirrors Claude's movements, appears to be in the same room as the singer but as the camera pans we see he has been watching Claude on TV. Musically the song starts with a very sparse piano and a slow, slightly sad and serious 4 line verse. This leads to the pre-chorus containing short sharp rhymes, plus accompanying dance routine, and then into the thumping beat and la-la-la infused chorus. This goes through again however the chorus is a little longer. This is followed by a bridge which peters out back to the solitary piano part.

The song balances the heartfelt chanson verses and the poppier, upbeat chorus, and the transition from one to the other is well done. The song has an authenticity but cleverly uses well known French phrases e.g. c'est a vie, melodie, comme çi comme ça, la vie en rose and petit. The storytelling in the video is reminiscent of Stromae's "Papaoutai" with the protagonists dancing together but also apart. As the song is about Claude's early life and his mother, the visual theming feels genuine, however due to ESC age limits this staging might not happen, unless some CGI or video trickery can be used to make it seem like the boy is there. Claude is a charismatic performer down the camera and in the hall, so I ma  intrigued to know how this will look on stage. The song's audio style feels contemporary to the current Francophonic music scene with the changes in tempo and African influences. As we know though, this style has not done well at Eurovision - particularly in the televote - which is a concern. After the unfortunate ending to last year's campaign, the Dutch will be looking for a decent result but I do not think this will be a winner this time.

ARTIST - Claude

SONG - C'est La Vie

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Claude Kiambe, Arno Krabman, Léon Palmen, Joren van der Voort

NETHERLANDS 2024

The Dutch song was revealed on February 29th - the video and song was first played during a special afternoon broadcast of De Avondshow with Arjen Lubach where the singer was also interviewed about the song. The same video clip premiered on the Eurovision YouTube channel minutes later. In December 2023, AVROTROS revealed that they had internally selected their singer and the chosen song would soon be in production. The Dutch song for Malmö is "Europapa" by Joost Klein.

Klein was born in the Friesland area of the Netherlands in 1993. His early life was rocked by the death of both his mother and father in his early teens and was subsequently was looked after by his older brother and sister. He attended the gymnasium  school in Leeuwarden, but did not complete his education. He first came to fame through his YouTube channel under the name EenhoornJoost creating documentaries and sketches. he then branched into music with the release of "Dakloos" in 2016. the next year he set up his own record label, Albino. He also released a book of poems also entitled "Albino" which was inspired by his father's love of writing. Overall, Joost has 8 studio albums, countless singles - many as a featured artist - and has appeared at many of the Netherlands most famous concert halls and festivals.

This is the kind of uptempo high-tempo song we come to expect from Joost but one might suggest this is a lot more welcoming and 'user-friendly' than many of his past hits. As ever, with his work, the majority of the song is in Dutch although there are refereces to people and place names that you will be able to make out. The song starts with a very 90's jingly piano intro with a stereotypical 'dj shouting on the PA' type intro. We then have a quick chorus before entering verse 1 and finally finishing with a chorus and post chorus with the distorted sample of  'Europapa' This loop of verse-chorus- post chorus happens again and this takes up to just over the two minute mark. Here, the happy-hardcore section of the song pipes up with a synthesiser taking the place of the spoken 'Europapa' lyrics. The song then closes down with a spoken word finish reciting a letter written by his late father - although this part is on the video only and not on the streamable track.

The video, like the song, has lots of running themes and lots of European flag themes as well as nods to '90s culture. Joost's blue suit with the really big shoulder pads is very fun and striking although I am not sure this would make the greatest of stage outfits - but might make for a great costume reveal moment... It will be interesting to see if any part of the video, in particular any of the dancing parts, are replicated on the stage by extra bodies or projected on the back walls. The track does end rather abruptly and I feel that either the gabber section could be extended and made more of or there would be more of the chorus to really make a real big finish. Joost's popularity in a lot of of western Europe will stand him in good stead with a sizable chunk of the televoting public. Also I don't think this particular entry will have much trouble creating that rave ambiance given how the age demographic in the crowd will enjoy and appreciate such an authentic throwback having remembered it the first time around!

ARTIST - Joost Klein

SONG - Europapa

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Donny Ellerström, Paul Elstak, Tim Haars, Joost Klein, Teun de Kruif, Thijmen Melissant 

NETHERLANDS 2023

The Dutch song was revealed on March 1st during the BNNVARA show "Khalid & Sophie," as well as simultaneous premier  of the official music video on youtube. Way back in November, the Dutch broadcaster announced that the duo of Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper had been internally selected as their act. Their song is called "Burning Daylight".

Mia Nicolaï was born in Amsterdam and is half-Dutch, half-Russian. As a child, she started taking drama and ballet classes which led to an interest in music and began piano and violin lessons. In 2018 she released "At Last" her first single, and has released 5 songs in total. She has recorded around the world including New York and Melbourne. Dion Cuiper, known professionally as Dion Cooper, came to prominence as a contestant on of The Voice of Holland in 2015 but was eliminated in the battle rounds. In 2021, he supported Duncan Laurence during his Dutch tour, and then released his debut EP  ‘Too Young, Too Dumb’ which and is almost at 2 million streams. Although Mia and Dion are performing as a duo, they were put together especially for the contest - a suggestion by Laurence's husband Jordan Garfield.

The music video sees the duo in different stressful and emotional situations and at the end they escape those environments and sing the song together. The song starts with an atmospheric piano intro. Dion sings first verse and starts with a croaky whispery soulful tone. This progresses though the pre-chorus and then has a much more powerful feel during the chorus. Mia then takes up verse 2 and again in the pre chorus. She reaches much higher notes during this part but her voice doesn't seem to alter much in terms of power but this might be more to do with the mix rather than lack of power. For the next chorus they sing together and they sing the same tune together rather than in harmony. Their voices work ok together although this may need to change when singing live. Finally there is the repetitive outro which starts off bombastic and almost angry then peters out to a finish.

This act is a little different to their Dutch predecessors as it is slightly untested and neither are that well known. As the song was previewed as a video it is hard to say how this will translate to the stage. Part of me hopes that their voices will pop much more on stage and that they have the chemistry with the audience and with themselves to boot. Because the song is not a classical duet - they are not singing to or about each other - the song needs a setting, a narrative and a memorable visual hook which it doesn't have right now. I like the sound of Dion's voice and once I got into the song I almost wished this wasn't a duet. This is not to diss Mia's voice, more that I don't really know what her - or any other voice - adds to the sound. 

The song is rather mid-tempo. Although there are gentle peaks and troughs in the song, on first listen it feels samey. On repeat listen the music becomes more memorable and pronounced. This is definitely a ball in the jury's court which may make things tricky when getting out of a 100% televote semi-final. If it does reach the final its chances of going up the leader board therein are much greater. Once you realise that this is a Duncan Laurence vehicle you can definitely hear echoes of "Arcade" in its production. This is not a bad thing as this is as ESC winning song, not so good for me because I never have been the biggest fan of "Arcade". After a few tentative listens, this song is a grower and would not sound out of place on adult contemporary radio stations and playlists. It took me several listens to get the song, mainly because I found parts of the music video rather in your face and I am not sure it actually compliments the song. I don't think it has enough character to be a winner but does has status in terms of its technical acumen.

ARTIST - Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper

SONG - Burning Daylight

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - D Cooper, Jordan Garfield, Duncan Laurence, LUKAZ, Sean Myer, M Nicolai

26/02/12 NETHERLANDS

The Dutch Final was held on February 26th at Studio 24 in Hilversum, hosted by Jan Smit. For the first half of the competition, the 6 songs were paired into duels. The 3 winners of each duel then went into the second round where the overall winner was chosen. Voting in both rounds was a mixture of televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%).

The eventual winner was the song “You and me” sung by 21 year old Joan Franka. Joan  wears a white native American Indian headdress (just like the bloke from the Village People) Her four backing singers/dancers are dressed in various Pocahontas inspired beige outfits with fringing and tassels. Joan also plays the acoustic guitar while she is singing. The look fits the song but is a little it dated (if not a bit on the jokey side) . That said it is a very noticeable look and Joan will be visually remembered however a bit of modernisation would not go amiss.

The song is a mid-tempo country song. Jans voice is quite strange and has a touch of the Lena Mayer-Landrut ‘mockney’ accent especially at the end of her words. The song is ok – however the chorus does save it slightly. The chorus is very simple and the main parts are repeated enough times to make in impact. The bridge part where she goes quite high is a little bit painful as she can get a bit too squeaky.

This is nowhere near a winner but could just about squeeze into the final.

SONG  -  You and me

ARTIST – Joan Franka

COMPOSERS – Joan Franka, Jessica Hogeboom

LANGUAGE – English

UPDATE 5

More news and videos !

MALTA -The official video came out this week. The vocal and background of the song has changed very little but I think that the video is very clever. Shame that such enthusiasm and message cannot be relayed onto the ESC stage.




SAN MARINO – As partially previewed in the TV presentation, Senit has released a video for “Stand By” It was filmed in a very snowy San Marino, which is a bit strange for a summer song contest!




ICELAND – Firstly, the boys have decided to sing their entry in English – which I am a little disappointed at. The song is now “Coming Home” and a video for this new version was realised this week.




NETHERLANDS – Like Iceland, 3JS will be singing in English. The video for “Never Alone” can be found below.




POLAND – Magdalena has released an English version of “Jestem” called “First class ticket to heaven”. However, due to a poor reception of the song, it has been confirmed that she will be singing in Polish in Germany.




UKRAINE – The controversial winner of the pre-selection, Mika Newton, has released an official video of her song, to be sung in English, “Angel”




FYROM – Vlatko has been very busy in the studio. As well a the Macedonian version, he has been working on an English, Russian and Serbo-Croat version on his song “Rusinska”, however it looks like he will be signing the original Macedonian version during Eurovision. His new video clip of the song is below.




TURKEY – The internally selected Yüksek Sadakat have finally released their video clip of “Live it up” I think the video clip re-affirms that their show at Eurovision will not be much of a ‘show’

UPDATE 1

As the songs are selected and time goes on, things change.
In these updates I hope to very briefly add any news (good or bad!!!) about the songs or acts chosen for this year’s Eurovision.


UKRAINE – Just like last year, this year’s national final turned out to be a total fiasco!
It was announced at the time that Mika Newton had won the final with her song “Angel”. After the result many, including some of the other participating singers, protested the results. After some investigating it was discovered that there was a major voting anomaly with the public televote. Although Mika recieved the most SMS and internet votes, those votes came from very few unique phone numbers and IP addresses, inferring block voting and rigged voting.
To try and address the situation NTU announced a “Top three run off” between Mika Jamala and Zlata. However just a few days later Jamala withdrew from this new final – then Zlata did the same. So NTU were back at square one and decided to just go with Mika. Rumours of a new song for Mika to sing were uncovered but both Mike and NTU have decided to keep with the original song.

GEORGIA – just a week after Eldrine won the ticket to Düsseldorf, the lead singer was sacked! Tako Vadachkoria has been replaced by Sopho Toroshelidze, one of the backing singers from last year’s contest. A video featuring the new singer is to be produced.

BELARUS – Firstly, it was decided that the lyrics to their selected song were to be changed, to reflect the new “Belarus” rather than of the nation during Soviet times. Then a video emerged of this song being played in April last year, well before the EBU’s cut off date. No official word yet has been made by Belarusian TV or the EBU about the song or country’s disqualification.

NETHERLANDS - As expected, the Dutch act, 3JS have decided to sing their winning entry in English. The song is now renamed “Never alone” and the song and video are being recorded as we speak. Rumours from the band suggest that the intro of the song will be changed and more guitar-led. In addition they will be doing all the singing themselves without the help of extra backing vocals.

SLOVAKIA – The selected act TWiiNS presented their song at the close of the Miss Slovakia contest on the 5th March. Unfortunately the girls were very much miming and the TV director seemed more interested in getting views of the winning (and losing) ladies f the competition. We are no closer to knowing if they can sing yet or what their presentation will be like.

NETHERLANDS

The Dutch final was held in Hilversum on 30th January. 3JS (pronounced three-jays) were internally selected by the Dutch Broadcasters. The song was to be chosen using a 50% jury and 50% televote system. All 5 songs had been produced by the band themselves.

The 3JS, to be frank, look like the Jonas Brothers Dad’s band. They have been in the business a fair while now and seem quite tight. I guess TROS will be hoping that this experience will pay some dividends on the night. Another note to be made is that the stage seems quite small and sparse. Whatever the band does tonight will need to be highly magnified and thought out before getting it to the Eurovision stage. But I am getting ahead of myself- Lets get on with the show…

The show starts with a compilation of old Eurovision hits. Then the jury is introduced. The band is introduced with a short video including pictures of when they were young.

Ga Dan Neit (Don't go then) This is a slightly country based song with a very floaty quality. The chorus is not very strong for Eurovision. Might be a great record for the radio, but not Eurovision. I am also not quite sure if Dutch suits this style of song. Very strange ending too. The audience also does not look that impressed.

De Stroom (The stream) The guys are joined by male and female backing singer .This song starts much more upbeat. The audience starts clapping immediately. The bridge before the chorus rally builds up the tension and anticipation for the next part. The chorus is very catchy, especially with the oh-oh-oh bit at the end. Sounds like Stargirl by McFly. Quite a lot.

Toen ik jou vergat (When I forgot you) The band now revert back to the slow numbers. This is a very slow tempo number with a quite rocky guitar, a bit like “Days of our lives” by Queen. The tune of the chorus is actually clever but the tune seems to be too low for the singer although he seems to be gesticulating quite passionately throughout. The audience are motionless.

Weelderig Waardeloos (Luxuriously worthless) This is more a folk tune on acoustic guitar. They are all sat on stools and the whole performance is very gentle and quiet. The song is actually reminiscent of a children’s lullaby. I actually think that this song is stunningly beautiful however I am unsure if this would be too quiet for Eurovision or stand out because of it.

Je Vecht Nooit Allen (You will never fight alone) The backing singers once again appear on stage. The song starts off quite quiet however the audience are clapping. The bridge kicks in and the audience start really get into it The chorus grows even more in the music and the repetitive lyrics make it quite memorable. I think this may be the audience favourite!

After another compilations tape including some faves in the studio (Marscha and Marlayne to name just two) The jury reveal their rankings -

1st "Je vecht nooit alleen”
2nd "De stroom"
3rd "Ga dan niet"
4th "Toen ik jou vergat"
5th "Weelderig waardeloos"

Then the televote results are announced

"Ga dan niet" 5th (1%)
"De stroom" 2nd (25.5%)
"Toen ik jou vergat" 4th (3.9%)
"Weelderig waardeloos" 3rd (5.8%)
"Je vecht nooit alleen" 1st (63.8%)

This means that “Je Vecht Nooit Alleen” will be the song 3JS sing in Dusseldorf.


SINGER – 3JS
SONG – Je Vecht Nooit Alleen (You will never fight alone)
MUSIC - Jaap Schilder, Jan Keuken, Jaap Kwakman
WORDS – Jaap Schilder, Jan Keuken, Jaap Kwakman