The Netherlands belong to the „founding members“of the Eurovision Song Contest. Since 1956 they have participated almost every year and four times they took back home the crown of the European music. The latest victory was 35 years ago with “Dinge Dong” by Teach-In in 1975. The best results in recent years could be reached with “Vrede” by Ruth Jacott in 1993 (6th place) and “Hemel en Aarde” by Edsilia Rombley in 1998 (4th place). Unfortunately, after 1998 there has not been a significant song, which placed well. Furthermore the semi final system did not have a positive impact for the Netherlands. Sometimes it’s due to the televoting and Diaspora voting, but even more due to the choice of the Dutch entry itself.

This year it doesn’t look better at all. To be precise it looks bitterly. From time to time, countries do send joke songs to Eurovision, like the singing Turkey from Ireland. But the Dutch probably don’t take “Ik ben verliefd” as a joke – they take it seriously. The pre selection was a nightmare due to the fact that there was only this specific song and five candidates competed for the best rearrangement of a song with a carnival-beer-tent-character. Even the judge Mr. Eurovision Johnny Logan as a juror could not hide his disappointment. The composer Pierre Kartner was well known in the 70’s and famous for his Smurf song, but this has been ages ago and the Smurf song is classes away from this year’s Dutch entry. How can the Netherlands send a song to Eurovision, which is only appealing to a special interest group? The Netherlands have mainly sent good quality songs to Eurovision like “Vrede”, but how do they think they will pass the Semi Finals or even imagine winning?
With this song Eurovision will lose credibility and the reviewer will distort the show for another time.