The Netherlands 1999 - take 2

Werner Sewbalak from The Netherlands wrote this report on the Nationaal Songfestival which took place 14 March in Studio 100 in Hilversum.

Paul de Leeuw & Linda de Mol The hosts of the evening were, just like last year, Linda de Mol (presenter and actress in Holland and Germany) and Paul de Leeuw (comedian, talk show host, actor, and ESC-fan). The Contest did not take place in Amsterdam's RAI, like last year, because of the absence of a live orchestra (which nobody liked).

Because the contest in Jerusalem will be not so extravagant, the NOS decided to follow them and that is way there was no looking back at previous years and the first group was announced immediately. This year's candidates: five soloists, four groups and a duo.

Nine of the ten songs were fully in English, one was in English, Spanish, French and Dutch.

1)

This song came from the open selection (five songs were written by invited composers, five were selected from the 250 received (English, Frisian, Dutch, Spanish, French)songs). The writers are rather unknown and the song they produced wasn't a very good one. The group put on a nice show, but their voices weren't very good and the song, which sounds like a not so good Backstreet Boys-song, is not outstanding. Everybody understood this would not win.

2)

This song came from invited composers. Tamara comes from the Dutch village of Volendam (Maribelle) and so do the composers of her song. A lot of Dutch singers come from this village and one of the best known is the group BZN for which these three men write almost all the songs. This song resembled BZN's music very much. BZN is very popular with old people and younger people with a certain music taste. You must love this kind of music, I don't and I'm sure the rest of Europe wouldn't either. Tamara did have a very beautiful voice.

3)

John Ewbank writes the hits of the Netherlands most popular singer Marco Borsato. And the song was co-produced by Vrede/Hemel&Aarde -writers Fluitsma-Van Tijn. So everyone expected a lot from this song. Well, it was original as it was in Spanish, French, Dutch & English.

But the song itself wasn't really good. The group, 3 guys and 2 girls, had beautiful individual voices but did not sound good as a group. Unfortunately this song did not life up to our expectations.

4)

This song came from the selection. Tom Bakker is Dick Bakker's son. Dick Bakker is our national conductor and wrote our 1975 winning song. Jane's voice was probably the best of the night. Her sensitive and romantic ballad was beautiful as well. After the jury had voted she was second. After the televoting she ended up 3rd. This song, however, wasn't a favourite of mine.

5)

This not very well-known writer-duo was asked to write a song. They came up with Maybe love sung by the new boyband All of us.

This group has already had some performances in Iceland and Belgium. They have the potential to become the Dutch answer to the BSB and Five, but then they have to come up with better songs. This song was - as we say in Dutch - one of 13 in a dozen: nothing special.

6)

Also an invited song. John van Katwijk is known for his good songs, and with this song he proved to be a good composer. Donya won the soundmixshow when aged 15. This was a good sign (as Edsilia Rombley and Gerard Joling won that contest as well). Her song was good, a nice pop song, with original music. Strangely enough the 'prof-jury' did not really like it. It was somewhat 6th after their votes.

7)

Jan Rot wrote thedouble date lyrics and the music was composed by a Dutch house-duo, better known as Flamman & Abraxas. The lyrics were very esc-style, as in the chorus they sang they wanted to send an email to Berlin and then they named all the cities or names of the countries competing in esc99. The music was original as well, with funny sounds like the sound you hear when calling in when you want to go on the internet. So this may have been a very good song, but the singers, a female twin, ruined it with the most terrible voices you have ever heard. They sang like 3-year-olds. Their English was terrible as well (they sang 'Ai want to zent un emeel to berlien'), their voices were terrible and so Paul de Leeuw kept making fun of them: when Linda de Mol said: 'and here we have Double Date who sang Email to Berlin' Paul said: 'well, if you could call that singing'. And when the first jury-member gave them the first point, he said: 'thank God, they're of the nill, but it won't get much higher.

Mrs. Einstein, present in the audience, was filmed after they sang, and they held their hands in front of their mouths, to hide the laughing.

Thus, a terrible performance and the joke of the evening.

8)

Tjeerd Oosterhuis, the last invited composer, is one of Holland's best producer. Together with his sister Trijntje, he forms the very successful group Total Touch (Somebody else's lover, Touch me, I'll say goodbye) and he writes a lot of hits for various other Dutch artists. This song was, no doubt, the best of the night. Roger, whom you'll probably remember as the background singer of Edsilia (the one with the cap and glasses) is a friend of his and he sang the song beautiful. The song is comparable with songs sung bu artists like Elton John. Roger started singing behind a piano, but as the song went to a climax he stood up and walked around singing this very good and beautiful ballad. My fave, and placed 4th after the prof-jury had voted. He was placed 3rd by the televoting audience.

9)

This song was one of the best Nationaal Songfestival-songs of this decade. It was written by three men, of whom Jerry and Roger also wrote last years entry for Claudia Nelson. It was beautifully sung by four men, who reminded me a lot of BoyzIIMen, because of their song, their voices and the show the put on. It was a very good song, sung by a very good group, but unfortunately not suit for the ESC. This group will, no doubt, become a hit in whole Europe and won't even need the ESC to help them. The prof-jury placed it 3rd, the televoters placed it second, so eventually it beat Dreams by Jane and ended up 2nd with 103 points. Jane came 3rd with 93 points.Marlayne

10)

This song came from the selection and thus was not a favourite. Marlayne sang this cheerful song very well. It has a nice opening, a not so meaningful text and the music composed on a typical ESC-way, except that the end is a 'fade-out' and that is what I don't understand. It is up-tempo, nice, cheerful and Marlayne has a good voice. But it is not one you immediately remind, like Hemel & Aarde. Many were surprised, but this song won. She received 77 points from the professional jury (each of the 8 jury members gave 1-6 points to their numbers 9-4 and then 8, 10 and 12 to their top three). So she ended up first after the professional jury, with Jane in 2nd (66). But the televoting could change everything. The televoters can give just as many points as the prof-jury, that could give 408 points in total. But the televoters chose this song as well. She got a bigger percentage of the voters (42%!!!) than Edsilia last year (31%). But when you take the quality of the songs in account that is not very surprising. 42% meant 177 points, so Marlayne won the contest with the incredible amount of 248 points.

Overall impression:

This Marlayneyear's songs were of a poor quality. After last year everybody expected a lot, but many were disappointed. Fluitsma/Van Tijn did not write a song, Ewbank wrote a bad one, and Oosterhuis wrote a good one but did not win. Wit Roger in 4th position, Jane in 3rd, Deante in 2nd and MArlayne in 1st Holland has a very special result of this years contest. Marlayne's song isn't Holland's best entry ever and a typical 8/9th-position son. Let's see what Europe does.

About the voting:

There were 8 jury members, among them the composer of Colorado (NED79) Ferdi Bolland, and Wessel van Diepen, the producer and composer of the Vengaboys. They all gave 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 points to their resp. numbers 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 and the numbers 1, 2 & 3 received resp. 12, 10 and 8 points. There were no points for the number ten. In total the jurymembers could give 51 points each and thus a total of 408 points. The televoting result, a whole lot of people voted, was counted via percentages. Each percentage corresponded with a percentage of 408 points (e.g. if 25% voted for a song, it received 102 points). That way the televoting hugely influenced the voting.

Here is the result after the jury had voted:

Here is the result of the televoting:

So the final result was:

 

Werner Sewbalak