The Common Linnets have been teasing us for months, but tonight they finally gave us a taste of their Eurovision song ‘Calm After the Storm’. Ilse DeLange and Waylon performed an acoustic version of the song earlier this evening on Dutch talk show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’. They will unveil the complete song tomorrow on Radio 2’s “Gouden Uren” between 09:00 – 12:00 CET.
During the show, Waylon and Ilse also took time to chat about their entry. Ilse explained that they had 28 songs to choose from, and that only three were deemed suitable for Eurovision. “There are songs on the album that are perhaps more obvious, but we went with the song that we liked most,” she said. “It’s a song with atmosphere, a sensitive song. We already have a battle plan, we are working with a director, and we have everything arranged and set up, from where we stand on the podium to how we will do the show.”
The presenter played Ilse and Waylon some of the other songs from Eurovision. Ilse said that Switzerland’s Sebalter has a good act, but that his banjo doesn’t make her nervous.
Waylon made it clear that they wanted to maintain their vocal independence. “We don’t want to fall into the routine of singing as a duo too much, we also sing apart in pieces of the song,” he said. “Ilse is very into the staging. I’m good with all that. You have to start from the song: it isn’t a song to bring a carnaval with you. You just want people to give three minutes of their attention.” Waylon was fascinated by Latvia’s entry “Cake to bake.”
Among the other takeaways? Ilse is obsessed with staging. And the duo plan to visit smaller countries in the weeks ahead with the hope of scoring some major points. Malta is on Ilse’s radar. Waylon was relaxed about the whole thing, just saying “it’s all good.”
Radio Hoax
Earlier today DJ Giel Beelen “played a snippet of the song” on his popular radio program. The team from wiwibloggs.com knows that Giel Beelen is a bit of a clown, so we didn’t publish it. Turns out the snippet was a hoax. Singer-songwriter Gitta De Ridder provided the vocals. You can watch the hoax here.
http://youtu.be/0tpWuoxwCZM
Ilse was amused.
So funny, @giel3fm that recording is pretty nice… But… It’s not us:-) so nothing leaked baby!! Cu all tonight at @dwdd Woohoo excited!
— The Common Linnets (@CommonLinnets) March 12, 2014
So what do you think of the acoustic version? We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the full version will have a bit more lift….
Daphne Dee contributed this report from Belgium. Follow her on Twitter @JacinthaD1. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by following the team on Twitter @wiwibloggs and by liking our Facebook page
I loved it, but that’s because I feel “calm” is missing in this Eurovision, I think there’s a lot of screaming and high notes, it was about time of something calmer and smooth, I like it a lot sincerely
It reminds me of ‘Fra Mols til Skagen’ and ‘sounds like a slow acoustic version of ‘Dancing in the dark’ by Bruce Springsteen. Though I recognize the quality, it lacks instant appeal. Both singers could have done so much better. 1+1 cleary is not 5 but 0,333 this time.
Feels very US if those songs could be successful in Europe not sure why ain’t virtually nobody tryin’ to sing ’em. A risky bet for the Netherlands but if they struggle to qualify each year I guess is in the nature of their participation to ESC.
Borinnggggggggg!
And then to realize, that this song was chosen to be the best of 24 other songs?
Netherlands is not gonna win with this song, at least not with this version. :/
Wow! The beauty is in the details, the voices and the beautiful guitar play. This is quality and something different from the (too) many up-tempo dance songs with poor lyrics and other ballads with screaming women. It’s a sincere ballad and I hope it will definitely make the final and end up in the top 10!
I don’t het why people always want a outstanding song that is different from all other songs. No it is not as weird/beautiful as birds laat year. However i do find this to be the best written song this year out of a music perspective. It flows beautifully in my opinion and their voices match. Yeahh there are more songs like calm after the storm this year, however none of them are as well executed as this one! It deserves to do well.
Sad face 🙁 It’s a nice little listen. Not really feeling it, but I hope for it to stand out more in the studio version. Really difficult to say if it has a chance.
Switzerland 14 < Malta 14 < Latvia 14 < Netherlands 14 < Netherlands 13
I loved this song!!!
@Branko I’m sorry but that’s not how we play
Guess, why she wants to visit Malta? Kaching! Money, Money, Money… Gimme your Money and I will you give some Points… Maybe, The Netherlands is up to a very good Position in ESC (e. g. Azerbaijan Top Ten/Five)
boring…
I prefer the false version XD!
I love it! <3 I hope we´ll qualify again :)))
@D: Denmark mostly votes for us :))))
“Birds” is way better than this. I know this is just the acoustic version and I’m really hoping the actual one is better because I don’t really like this and want the Netherlands to do well. They’re in a tough semi-final this year and thankfully have their best friend Belgium in it with them, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to qualify thanks to the Ex-Soviet and Nordic bloc voting.
Hehe this is dreadful (sorry Netherlands) but Ik ben verliefd (Sha-la-lie) (2010) was euphoria compared to this.
But seeing as most of the songs in Eurovision this year are this genre and worse then maybe just maybe it might scrape enough points to come 10th in the semi and 23rd in the final.
The song is beautiful, but I hope the real version is better and a bit faster and more exciting as this one. There was no clue in this performance. If the Eurovision act is the same as this, they’ll have a problem when they are drawed between two fast and spectacular songs. Then their performance will be very boring and annoying. That’s pity.
It´s beautiful. Not as good as Birds though. I´m very curious to the final version! I found it funny that they acted funny by two of the less loved songs, Switzerland and Latvia 😛
There was a leaked song that I was pretty happy with. I’m very disappointed with the acoustic version of the actual song. My only hope is that this was a head fake and the real arrangement will be unrecognizable from what we heard tonight. I don’t know what they wrote it for but it certainly wasn’t Eurovision.
I think tomorrow when we hear the proper version it will be much better and have the ability for top 5 in Copenhagen
I really love the acoustic version.
The acoustic version is very disappointing. It was very boring, and I felt it was quite repetitive. His vocals are also quite poor on the lower notes, which is pretty much half of the song. I hope the normal version is better, because this was a big disappointment for me.