The Netherlands have been taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest since the very beginning in 1956. The biggest successes of the Netherlands in the ESC have been in the early years, there were four victories: “Net als Toen” by Corry Brokken (#1) in 1957, “Een beetje” by Teddy Scholten (#1) in 1959, “De Troubadour” by Lenny Kuhr (#1) in 1969 and “Ding-A-Dong” by Teach-In (#1) in 1975. The recent successes were “Vrede” by Ruth Jacott (#6) in 1993 and “Hemel en Aarde” by Edsilia Rombley (#4) in 1998. The Netherlands did not profit from the semi final system, unfortunately they have only qualified once, and all the recent years they did not pass it. Maybe this is due to the big overhang of Eastern European countries, additionally the quality of the songs decreased a bit, The Toppers and Sieneke might have been fun contributions, but from the international point of view they have not been competitive enough in such a great variety of music which can be found in the ESC nowadays.

The Dutch TV NOS has determined the band 3JS and there were several songs to chose from for the public. The song “Je vecht nooit alleen” is a soft rock ballad, which will be sung in English “Never alone”. 3JS consists of three guys, which can’t be treated as a boy band as they are a bit more mature, but not having Toppers’ age. The music they have been presenting in the Dutch national final has been earthy and solid, hand-made music, which is quite popular in the Netherlands right now, and so is “Never alone”. The song is just plain and nothing typical “Eurovision”, so it can do well, but there is also a high risk that it doesn’t point out enough to be remembered. But they deserved a qualification!