The battle has begun.
Presenters, artists and singers from all corners of the Netherlands have put their names forward to present the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
And many have no prior connection the contest, which has annoyed Dutch “Mr Eurovision” Cornald Maas.
He took to Twitter on June 19 to vent his frustrations.
Cornald is mostly annoyed about the fact most of them have never shown interest in the song contest.
Grappig toch hoe allerlei grijpgrage ‘belanghebbenden’ en ‘kandidaat-presentatoren’ die nooit een cent om dat hele #Songfestval gaven zichzelf nu schaamteloos naar voren schuiven voor ‘n plekje in de frontlinie
— Cornald Maas (@cornaldm) June 19, 2019
In the tweet he says:
“It’s funny how all kinds of grabbing “stakeholders” and “candidate-presenters”, who never gave a penny for the entire #Songfestival now shamelessly put themselves forward, for a spot in the front line”.
Kijk vooral #OpiumOpOerol van gister terug. Want inmiddels boden ook @twanhuijs & Janny van der Heijden zich als presentatieduo #songfestival aan
— Cornald Maas (@cornaldm) June 19, 2019
Cornald Maas has been involved in Eurovision for the Netherlands since 1993.
From 2004-2010 and again since 2014, Cornald has served as ESC commentator for the Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS. He has also hosted popular preparty Eurovision In Concert in Amsterdam. Next to him in the commentator booth is Jan Smit, who also has spoken of being interested in taking on the job. Smit has been ESC commentator since 2011.
Earlier, presentors of RTLBoulevard called for an ‘open competition‘.
The fear is that broadcaster AVROTROS together with NPO and NOS will choose a presenter from the ‘government funded’ stable. NOS, AVROTROS and NPO are government funded. Commercial broadcasters, like for example RTL, would like to bring forward their presentors as well. Individuals that have put their names forward include Eva Jinek, Emma Wortelboer, Tim Douwsma, Nikki De Jager (aka NikkiTutorials) and Chantal Janzen among others. With that lineup, Cornald Maas has some serious competition on his hands for the top job.
From this year’s lineup of hosts Assi Azar, Erez Tal and Lucy Ayoub all had previous ties to the contest. Supermodel Bar Refaeil however had no prior connection.
Do you agree with Cornald Maas? Should the presenter be related somehow to Eurovision? Who is your favourite to present Eurovision 2020? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Please let it NOT be Paul de Leeuw !
If yes, God help us ????
Assi Azar proved this year how fun it is to have a true Eurovision fan at the coalface. I thought he was brilliant, especially during the switch song.
But really… if they don’t care about Eurovision and now want to take advantages out of it, that would be so lame.
Trashing the contest is one thing of course. But you don’t need to be a mega fan to do a good job of hosting- in fact your personal enthusiasm might result in you being unprofessional- maybe being explicit about your favourites, thirsting over hot contestants, making inside jokes about national finals that pass over most viewers’ heads….let’s be honest the Dutch could do a lot better than Cornald+Emma even though they would bring passion to their duties, but not a lot of other merits.
Thank you but no thank you, I don’t want him as a host, I simply don’t like him, his bad spirit, his opportunism, he is a jealous person, he is too patriotic about eurovision…..he doesn’t match the Eurovision values at all, look how he hosts esc in concert…..so tacky so boring……yes to conclude this guy is tacky, this is the word. Cornald the twitter addicted no thank you NEXT.
It would be a bad choice I persist and confirm, he is not professional, I remember he made a big scandal and complain about the fact that Bilal couldn’t come to Esc in concert, as a capricious childish person, this guy doesn’t reflect enough, he is not reliable, he can say a big bullsh.t in live on tv seeing his tweets…… Ebu and broadcasters shouldn’t take the risk to choose an unstable person moreover with a very bad accent…..he has to speak english and french to host and I can’t see him doing that perfectly. To conclude again I think… Read more »
His english accent is shameless
Cornald Maas and/or Jan Smit, you can”t get worse presenters . Ok to comment on Dutch tv but so not right to present a 200 million audience. My sugestion would be Eva Jinek , best English speaking presenter and Doutze Kroes , she’ll nail the audience and Tim Douwsma because no other guy would do the job better and he got the best looks ?.
Exactly. I like your proposals! I think they should look for stylish presenters amongst Nos News personalities. Maybe Dionne Stax?
yes, Dionne too! so there we have our 4 presenters hahaha
he’s not a very good host, but at least he’s not a robot…
Why this love for comedians? First of all, ESC doesn’t have to be stand up comedy. Second, everything is scripted, the real funny people must be the writers like Edward af Sillen.
Well would you rather lifeless deliveries?
Cornald Maas is entitled to have his own opinion but hij doesn’t own the ‘rights of ESC’. According to me both, Cornald Maas and Jan Smit, don’t have the charisma to present a 200 millions viewers show. Eva Jinek is for me the one to beat or join for other candidates, mainly for the reason brains and looks .
This is typical for Cornald Maas and why he shouldn’t host the competition. He is a commentator and not an objective host. During Eurovision in Concert he made some strange remarks, didn’t hide his opinion and had to show off how much he knows. I like him as a person, but he wouldn’t make a great host. My favorites are Tim Douwsma, Wilfred Baaijens, Chantal Janzen, Dionne Stax….
Also I don’t think Nikkietutorials would be a bad green room host, but I also dont think she should be in the top contention over other Dutchies.
I understand the frustration he feels, but I also think that this comment hurt his chances of being one of the Presenters
Matthijs van Nieuwkerk and Leo Blokhuis , please 🙂
Top 2000 a gogo is the second most fun music show in the world
I don’t think that’s a fair comment. Until a few years ago nobody in the Netherlands cared about Eurovision, we have a 7 year non qualification record. In that time no one was interested, but that doesn’t mean they still think the same about ESC. And even if they didn’t care about it before, so what? We need the best presenters to host, not the ones that are the biggest fans.
Since 2013, the Netherlands has qualified every year except for 2015. That’s plenty of years to start caring about Eurovision. People who didn’t care until Duncan won and don’t have enough experience hosting, shouldn’t host.
It’s not only the non qualifications, but there is a common view in the whole country that Eurovision is just a circus (we lost from a “woman with a beard” and last year a “chicken lady” won). That’s changing now after Duncan’s win. I agree with you that people should be experienced in hosting. So even though Emma Wortelboer is a ESC fan since her childhood, she is not experienced enough to host. So what I wanted to state in my comment: experience and being a good presenter is much more important than if you are a huge esc fan… Read more »
Let him host, like Stefan Raab hosted in 2011. Now all youtubers jump in the bandwagon.
No.. cornald maas simply isn’t a good enough host. His eurovision in concert hosting was decent, but not qualitive enough for the real thing. also he made kinda awkward remarks whenever he didn’t like a song and he absolutely butchered some of the artist names.
What job? He offers commentary for the dutch eurovision broadcast. That’s a way different task than live hosting a global event. Where did you hear me say i want duncan?? I just want an actual professional dutch television host with good english skills…
There needs to be at least one comedian on the hosting panel… I mean in the last decade we have had four comedians host (i.e., Anke Engelke, Stefan Raab, Petra Mede, and Oleksandr Skichko), and they did a great job, and were some of the best hosts this decade. It is just more authentic when a comedian delivers a punchline. I will, however, admit that you do get the exceptions, where some non-comedian hosts are funny as hell, e.g., Filomena Cautela and Måns Zelmerlöw. But when most non-comedian hosts try to make jokes, you just end up getting crickets, awkward… Read more »
Filomena Cautela is a comedian and trained actor.
Ooh okay, I knew she was an actress but I didn’t know that she is a comedian too. It makes sense though, as she is hilarious. 🙂
Also Måns acts as well, he was honestly a great host too.
Very interesting video about what happened during postcards (including Australia spectacular staging)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4PwLCHQgYI
Thank you for sharing 🙂
Somebody wants to have it all to himself. A desperate cry to “pick me, pick me”, which is not gonna happen because he is boring and not telegenic. Being a human Eurovision encyclopedia and thinking you’re entitled does not make you a great host. Just because you make yourself important and constantly try to get yourself into the contest does not mean anyone owes you anything. Pathetic dude.
Your comment is pretty pathetic.
He never said he absolutely must be the host. He just doesn’t want people who never cared about Eurovision to host.
I want nikkie tutorials!!!
PLEASE not Jan Smit.
They should have someone funny host ESC2020.
How about a presentation competition? Honestly, I am tired of seeing the same BNers on TV. Just like a singing contest, we, the public should decide. I am a big fan since 2002 and most of the presenters are so irritating with extremely flatline jokes. This is the time to present to Euro a new generation of Presenters. Follow the example from Duncan. It took a non BNer to bring the competition to us.
Cornald Maas and Jan Smit both shouldn’t host. I’d like to see Tim Douwsma as one of the hosts. He tried to represent the Netherlands in 2012 and gave the points in 2014, so he does have a connection to Eurovision. I’d also like Edsilia Rombley. She represented the Netherlands in 1998 and 2007 and gave the points in 2007 and 2015.
Bar Refaeli was the best host of the night, so what’s the big deal with the prior connection?
And the same is true for the years before.
Cornald Maas is pretty much out, that grumpy old man.
I don’t think it is necessary to have a prior connection or even to have shown any interest in the past. They’re professional hosts, applying for a job. May the best man or woman be the successful candidate.
Considering that Petra, who apart from maybe Katie Boyle, is the most acclaimed ESC presenter in history, wasn’t a Eurovision personality before Malmo, I don’t think being in the Eurovision bubble is a necessary criterion to host the contest- I mean, she’s certainly far more popular as a presenter than Alice (2015) or Timur (2017), who had Eurovision NF/JESC experience before hosting the main contest. I will say if the Dutch want a solo host, maybe Eurovision experience would be desirable, but if you have a team, they don’t all need to be in the bubble. I’d rather have eloquent,… Read more »
he shouldn’t host, he’s kinda annoying and has a thick dutch accent
I love Dutch accent 😛 It’s sexy kankr mudr
I don’t think that presenters absolutely need to have some prior connection to Eurovision (although it would be nice) but they have to be respectful. There are many people who only criticize Eurovision but then when it’s happening in their country they want to get involved and it’s not fair. And even if they are not Eurovision fans, they should actually have some knowledge about what’s going on. I’m not talking about main hosts here but sometimes other people, for example interviewers or presenters who take part in the opening ceremony, seem to know absolutely nothing about the contest. This… Read more »
Agree with Cornald Maas. ESC has many lovers, but also many arrogant haters ….. until their country wins. Then suddenly, everybody wants a piece of cake.
I don’t really see the issue? While having a host who is a fan of the contest is an added bonus I don’t see how it is ‘shameless’ in any way, they should appoint hosts who would do the best job and that’s what matters most. If these same people trashed the contest, then that would be a different story.
I think it’s great to have people outside of Eurovision as well, mixed with people who loves Eurovision! I mean Petra Mede wasn’t a big fan before and was very unknown in the Eurovision family.. And after a few years she is the hosting queen of eurovision!
Petra had been involved in hosting Melfest prior to eurovision, so she was very much part of the eurovision bubble.
Hosting Melodifestivalen once does not mean that you’re i the eurovision bubble automatically…!!!! It’s not the same show, and look what happened to Dolph Lundgren, Chrine Meltzer & Mark Levengood that hosted it once… Nobody knows them in Eurovision bubble Hahahahahah you prick
Yeah but the problem is nobody in the dutch eurovision bubble really has the skill to host eurovision. Or we are forced to choose cornald maas + Jan smit featuring Emma wortelboer 😉