Introduction

Like last year the Netherlands made an internal selection to choose the Eurovision entry for Copenhagen. The name of the artists has been announced earlier: The Common Linnets. The song title has been published later. Due to the 9th place of “Birds” by Anouk in the Grand Final in Malmö the Netherlands found back its way to the Eurovision spirit and the interest has increased enormously.

The duo The Common Linnets consists of Ilse De Lange and Waylon and was formed in 2014 for a concert at De Grolsch Veste stadium and as representatives for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The band is playing country music.

The singer Ilse Annoeska de Lange was born in Almelo (Eastern part of the Netherlands, close to Enschede) in 1977. When she was eight years old Ilse started as a lip-synching artist. In 1994 she performed at the Dutch Country Music Awards, her debut album “World Of Hurt”, which was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. With this album Ilse reached #1 in the Dutch charts and she stayed in the Top 100 for two and a half years! Ilse also sung a duet with Zucchero and received a Dutch price called “Edison” as best Dutch artist 2004. She became very popular in the Netherlands, but was not able to start a career in the United States of America. Her music is country and blue grass based and by now she has release 13 albums and many singles.

Waylon (real name Willem Bijkerk) was born in Apeldoorn in 1980. Since Waylon’s childhood he was inspired by country music, played drums, moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he lived for a year. In the USA he was working for a show of one of his idols Waylon Jennings. In 2005 he moved back to the Netherlands and entered the Dutch pre decision for the Eurovision Song contest with the song”Leven als een beest”. Waylon also participated in the TV show “Holland Got Talent” in 2008. With his song “Wicked Way” he entered the Dutch charts in 2009 (#10). In 2010 he was also awarded as best newcomer by 3FM. Waylon has released two albums and the third is on its way.

The song “Calm After The Storm” is a sophisticated country song which comes as a calm and earthy song. Unmistakably is the American country sound, as both singers have gained lots of experiences in Nashville. A lot of singers and composers make the mistake that they are writing songs especially for Eurovision, but with the authenticity are missing. The Common Linnets keep on doing what they have been doing individually, solid music which can reach a lot of people. With such a kind of song the ESC is getting class and credibility. A top entry from the Netherlands! Good luck!

History

Participations: 56

Debut: 1956

Biggest success: 4x 1st place “Net Als Toen” by Corry Brokken in 1957, “Een Beetje” by Teddy Scholten in 1959, “De Troubadour” by Lenny Kuhr in 1969, “Ding-A-Dong” by Teach-In in 1975, 2x 2nd place “Voorgoed Voorbij” by Corry Brokken in 1956, “De Vogels Van Holland” by Jetty Paerl in 1956, 1x 3rd place “I See A Star” by Mouth and MacNeal in 1974, 2x 4th place, 2x 5th place, 2x 6th place, 3x 7th place, 1x 8th place, 6x 9th place, 2x 10th place

Since the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 the Netherlands participate on a more or less regular basis. There have been certain years when the Dutch broadcaster NOS decided to withdraw. The Netherlands had four victories in history: “Net Als Toen” by Corry Brokken in 1957, “Een Beetje” by Teddy Scholten in 1959, “De Troubadour” by Lenny Kuhr in 1969, “Ding-A-Dong” by Teach-In in 1975.

Over the years there were quite a lot top 10 places and even last year in Malmö Anouk could achieve a good 9th rank with “Birds”. The most recent success were “Rechtop In De Wind” by Marcha in 1987 (5th), “Vrede” by Ruth Jacott in 1993 (6th) and “Hemel en Aarde” in 1998 (4th). Unfortunately, the Netherlands were not very lucky with qualifying for the final recently; this only happened twice out of ten times. So it would be great to the Netherlands more often in the grand final of the ESC. Therefore it seems that the Dutch people have lost a bit of interest and enthusiasm in the ESC due to the reason of absence in the grand final and that the last victory is more than 30 years ago! Thanks to Anouk the interest in the Netherlands has increased a lot!