We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: The Netherlands.
Mia and Dion
The Dutch song “Burning daylight”, sung by Mia Nicolaï and Dion Cooper, was chosen internally. Duncan Laurence and his husband-to-be Jordan Garfield wrote and composed the song with Mia, Dion and Loek van der Grinten.
Mia and Dion were both quite unknown to the Dutch audience. Mia from Amsterdam, who studied music in Melbourne, currently lives in Los Angeles. She released two singles in 2020: “Set me free” and “Mutual needs”. In 2023 she didn’t only co-write the Dutch song, but also one of the contestants in the Moldovan national final. She wrote “When love’s real” for Corina Ivanov.
Dion from Amstelveen debuted in 2020 with the release of the EP “Too young, too dumb”. In February 2022, Dion released a new single called “Know”. In april of the same year he opened for Benedict Cork and on 5 May he performed at the annual Bevrijdingsfestival. On 29 September 2022, his new single “Blue jeans” was released.
Both Mia and Dion started working with Duncan Laurence. He got the idea of bringing them together for the song “Burning daylight”. The team submitted it to the Eurovision selection committee. The rest is history.
Dutch artists for other countries
In 1970 the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Amsterdam. Easy for David Alexandre Winter, as he lived there. However, he did not represent the Netherlands. For Luxembourg he sang “Je suis tombé du ciel”. The Dutch group were Patricia & The Hearts of Soul. And that group went to Belgium, changed their name into Dream Express and represented Belgium in 1977. One of the members, Stella, did the job again for Belgium in 1982.
It was 1979 when German group Dschingis Khan took the stage. There was also a Dutch member in this group. The blond woman singing for Luxembourg in 1985 was Margo, whose real name is Annemieke Verdoorn. And than, in 2001, a Dutch artist won for another country: Dave Benton represented Estonia and won with “Everybody”. The year after, Belgium sent Sergio & The Ladies. All the ladies were Dutch as well. In 2005 we had Marian van de Wal representing Andorra. And of course, in 2021, Greek/Dutch Stefania sang for Greece.
The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Netherlands take part in the Eurovision Song Contest from the very beginning. And as Jetty Pearl had the honour to open the first contest, we can say that “De vogels van Holland” was the very first Eurovision Song ever.
In the fifites the country was very successful with two victories: Corry Brokken (“Net als toen”, 1957) and Teddy Scholten (“Een beetje”, 1959). After a long row of bad scores, the Dutch were back in 1969 with Lenny Kuhr and her “De troubadour”. Years with high scores followed, resulting in another victory in 1975, with Teach In and their “Ding-a-dong”.
Lesser years followed, with even a row of 8 entries not reaching the final. Things changed when one of the Netherlands’ biggest stars, Anouk, took part in 2013. A 2nd place with the Common Linnets followed a year later, and Duncan Laurence took the trophy back in 2019.
Bookmakers
Currently, Mia and Dion have a 15th place at the betting odds. That would be a good score for the two, wo will make sure the long row of songs that make it to the final continues.
The song
And of course, this is the song:
