The Netherlands 1998

Dutch TV Teletext on BVN, a satellite channel featuring "The Best of the Netherlands" (so the Eurovision National Final was given a miss!) announced late on March 7th, the winner of the Dutch final to be Edsilia Rombley (right), with "Hemel en aarde". Telephone voting determined the outcome. So, Edsilia will be going to Birmingham to represent The Netherlands.

Edisilia Rombley won the Dutch and European Soundmixshow, better known in Great Britain as "Stars in your eyes". as Oleta Adams. The songwriters of her song "Hemel en aarde", Van Tijn & Fluitsma are best known for their 1993 ESC-entry "Vrede" by Ruth Jacott.

Robert Schepers, a Dutch ESC-fan has provided this report (another view from Mihaly here)

The Dutch National final 1998 that was held on 8 March in the RAI in Amsterdam was one of the best ever. Good up-tempo songs, good artists and a fine presenting-duo Linda de Mol and Paul de Leeuw.

The Netherlands will be represented by Edsilia Rombley with her song Hemel en aarde (Heaven and earth). The song was written by Eric van Tijn & Jochem Fluitsma, who wrote Vrede for Ruth Jacott in 1993. This song was my favourite song to win the dutch final, but all the eight songs were good in this Dutch final.

The winning song reminded me a lot of Vrede that Ruth Jacott sang at the ESC-final in 1993 in Millstreet. I think that this song will reach the top 10 in the ESC-final in Birmingham, but I hope that we will gain the 100 points that we need to be in the ESC-final in 1999. The full result of the Dutch national final (between brackets the votes of the professional jury and of the public (televoting):

1. Hemel en aarde - Edsilia Rombley (57 / 81) 138 points;
   

2. Alsof je bij me bent - Nurlaila (49 / 35) 84 points;
   
3. Mijn hart kan dat niet aan - Frederique Spigt (49 / 21) 70 points;
   
4. Ze kwamen overzee - Nubia (14 / 51) 65 points;
   
5. Over - Ryan v.d. Akker & Lone van Roosendaal (17 / 31) 48 points;
   
6. Zintuigen - Claudia Nelson (33 / 7) 40 points;
   
7. Mijn wens voor 2000 - Sylvia Samson (28 / 10) 38 points;
   
8. Hou me nou maar vast - Marco Marlé (9 / 20) 29 points.

Edsilia was number one by both the professional and public jury. It was remarkable that the song 'Ze kwamen overzee' from Nubia was only 7th in the professional jury-result and that it came second in the public result!

Mihaly gives us his view of the show:

The voting was decided by telephone voting (250 000 calls) and some experts: Angela Groothuizen (TV-presenter, musician), a journalist of Volkskrant (can't remember his name, but he was ESC-fan), Albert Verlinde (hosts a society TV-program), Sandra Reemer (well known to the true ESC-fan), another journalist of the Telegraaf ('a winner should have a catchy chorus), chairman Willem Van Beusekom (the Dutch presenter of the ESC).

The winning song sounds very much like the Ruth Jacott entry, uptempo, good lyrics, catchy tune and a soulful singer. Edsilia is just 20 years old but what a voice! The TV-wall on stage showed during her performance more often one of the background singers, than the performer, no coincidence she was gorgeous.

Number two was Nurlaila. John Ewbank songs are instantly recognisable as they aim at the highest dramatic impact (pick up a Marco Borsato CD).lots of strings, 'open chords', great chorus. The singer wasn't bad at all, she had experience singing musicals and it should. She knew her way with the text and had a good dramatic impact. The choice was obvious, either this one or Edsilia would be winning.(2nd in jury, 3rd in the televote number three came as a surprise. Kind of shanty song feel to it, costumes from the 17th century, the image prevails of the German 'Dschengis Khan' entry (back in olden days). A song about the heroic voyages of the Dutch to the West and the East. You can easily imagine yourself singing the chorus, hoisting the sails of your windjammer. The lead singer was a bore, you could hardly hear her sing. Backing vocal was good though, and some funny lines in between ('black pepper, red peppers, nutmeg'). The surprise was that it came second in the televote, while the experts awarded next to nothing.

Zintuigen is a song (it came fourth I believe - no, 6th) that is really a pity it did not make it. It's nineties, like an rn'b song, mellow, lyrics were drawn from some poem. I'd love to hear it on a Saturday night out in my favourite hangout, but too innovative for the ESC? On the other hand he who doesn't dare, never wins. Claudia Nelson has a good voice, dressed in something resembling a sheepskin.

Fred. Spigt was the darling of the expert, yet they did not award her the points. She has a bit of a raw voice, an has had quite a life on the road, which shows. So when exclaiming, my heart can't take it, you'd instantly believe her. The song has a French chanson feel to it, nothing spectacular, acoustic instruments, a bit boring maybe, no winner under any circumstance.

The last three songs were really crap imho, 'Over' had the feel of the Streisand and Dion duet, but with two musical singers on stage who think it's just another show to impress the 1000 or so attending, 3 minutes can be long.

Marco Marle had this 13 in a dozen song, up tempo, catchy tune, full orchestra, every sentence rhyming to the previous one. He's 27 still lives with his parents, who were no doubt proud of their offspring. He came last (7th experts, 6 th televote)

Miss Samson, was not much of a good opening song. Henk Temming and his girl friend Paula Patricio tend to write songs with OK lyrics (it's not always about love) that are often based on something you read the papers. This one was intent on high dramatic impact. 2000 is just 2 years away, so too close to make really an impact. It had a huge group of backing vocals, with a lot of dissonant chords (to increase the impact), so it did not catch.

Original preview now follows:

Robert Schepers, a Dutch ESC-fan has provided us all with a list of the Dutch songs due to compete on Sunday March 8th for the homour of representing The Netherlands in Birmingham.
The contest will be hosted by Linda de Mol and veteran of Dutch finals, Paul de Leeuw.
Thanks also should go to Erik Oosterwijk who has confirmed these details and added some comments

Over to Robert Schepers:

The Dutch broadcasting station NOS announced the eight artists and songs for the Dutch National Songcontest on 8 March in the RAI in Amsterdam.

The Dutch selection jury selected four songs of invited authors and four songs of other authors.

The singer Nurlaila at the moment stars in the musical Miss Saigon.

Also, singer Ryan van den Akker is a famous musical-star and actress in Holland. She starred in Cyrano and De Jantjes, amongst others.

Marco Marlé had released a couple of unsuccessful singles last year. The composers Charley Lownoise/Mental Theo are best known for their happy hardcore music. 

John Ewbank who written the song for Nurlaila is the most succesful composer at the moment, he is selling hundreds of  thousands of albums he wrote/produced for Marco Borsato, a famous dutch singer.

Henk Temming who has written the song "Mijn wens voor 2000" is succesful with the Dutch band De Kast which he produced and composed for.

Frederique Spigt used to be in a band called I've Got The Bullets (back in the 80's) and she is now, among other things, host of a show at Dutch Talk Radio. Huub van der Lubbe, one of the songwriters of the song Mijn hart kan dat niet aan is singer in the Dutch band De Dijk, a band that's been succesful for fifteen years with their brand of bluesy rock music. 

Songwriter Ad van Olm is also a familiar name. He's one of the authors form the stable of Eddy Ouwens Productions and recently wrote with Eddy songs for Dutch Eurovision stars like Justine Pelmelay and Dutch final stars like Gert & Hermien  Timmerman (Gert Timmerman was in the Dutch final in 1965 with Waar de wind de zomer vindt). Ad van Olm also wrote songs for other national and international stars like Donna Lynton and Petula Clark. He also written for the national final before.  In 1996 his song Als je hart klopt was sung by the group Clau-dya's finished on the 4th place in the Dutch Final.  

The Conamus-Foundation will reward the winning composer with 10.000 guilders (3500 pounds).    

I hope that I give you enough information of the Dutch National Songcontest.

Thanks to Robert Schepers and Erik Oosterwijk!

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