She’s best-known as the lead singer of Finnish symphonic-power metal band Nightwish and has one of the most distinguished voices in the metal scene. And Dutch singer Floor Jansen may soon be known by even more people, as she’s revealed that we might hear her distinctive vocals at ESC 2020. In an interview with Algemeen Dagblad, Jansen said that she would consider representing the Netherlands at Eurovision. Rock on!
In some ways this has been a long time coming. You’ll remember that Nightwish attempted to represent Finland back in 2000. It was a very different time: the metal band had only just tasted international success and the lineup was different. Nightwish finished third in the national selection, owing partly to a ballad-oriented jury. Finland went on to score rather low in Stockholm with”A Little Bit” by Nina Åström. No tears needed for Nightwish: The Finnish metal-heads laid the groundwork for their genre to slay. Finland subsequently sent several hard rock and punk songs to ESC. That includes, of course, the epic 2006 win with Lordi.
The Netherlands, however, has not sent any heavy track to the Eurovision Song Contest thus far, opting instead for everything from singer-songwriter feel of Joan Franka to the power harmony of the sisters OG3NE. But there’s a decidedly metal-shaped hole in that mix. Home to bands such as Delain and Within Temptation, it’s rather surprising The Netherlands has not yet sent a symphonic metal band. Perhaps now would be a good time to start.
In the interview with Almegeen Dagblad, the band’s current frontwoman says she’d definitely consider representing the Netherlands. Naturally, Dutch fans — both of Floor and Eurovision — are excited and already compelling this crossover. This surprising statement came shortly after Jansen once again proved her quality consistency.
Last month, the Dutch vocalist flaunted her amazing abilities in a live show organised by AVROTROS. She gave a heartfelt operatic performance of “Vilja Lied” and hit some highly impressive Rona Nishliu-esque notes. You can watch the video here.
“It’s an honour to even be considered a good fit for Eurovision,” Jansen said in the interview. “I have never even thought about it before.”
She later said her sister encouraged her to consider Eurovision participation. “After giving it a big ‘No’ at first, nowadays I think ‘Why shouldn’t I?'”.
Floor also released a debut album with Norwegian rocker Jørn Viggo Lofstad last year, under the name Northward. Despite Jansen’s reference to this duo as a side project, rock fans are looking forward to hearing more from them too.
Northward do not perform live, however, so if we expect Floor to represent her homeland, she’ll probably go solo. It’s been two decades since Jansen’s Nightwish tried to go to Eurovision. Perhaps we can expect them to try again for Finland soon, or even go for the Netherlands along with their beloved lead singer.
What do you think of Jansen representing the Netherlands? Did her live performance floor you? Let us know in the comment section!
I would love to see rock music to take over Eurovision again. Also folk music too if given a chance.
Maybe she could do something like Armin van Buuren did with Sharon den Adel (“In And Out Of Love”)? Love to hear something like that again! 😀 Maybe this time with Martin Garrix?
In And Out Of Love: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TxvpctgU_s8
Hate on me if you want but I just want Netherlands to send a killer dance track for once with either Sharon Den Adel, Eva Simons, or DROELOE as the representative.
Send whole Nightwish!!! But she is not singing with them more, I think.
Last I checked, she still is. But if the whole group decides to give it a shot (last I checked, they rejected the idea), it will obviously be for Finland, which would be an improvement given their dismal fortunes (one of which they deserved better) since the last time they sent hard rock (2014).
I highly approve this
Yes, I would like to see more rock metal songs at Eurovision
oh WOW… holland will become a powerhouse
We need Nightwish to rep Finland, oh yes !!
I think the idea is that Floor would represent The Netherlands as a soloist rather than as the front woman of Nightwish, so no conflict of interest regarding Nightwish being Finnish
She is an incredible vocalist but there is one major problem with this possibility – Nightwish would have to cancel 4 out of 6 South American dates on their ‘Til Dawn They Count’ tour… http://nightwish.com/en/news/2019/08/untitled
It kinda feels weird since she is the singer of the Finnish band, but she is Dutch. Is Nightwish going to break up again? Is she starting solo career? Are you searching for a new singer? Why not represent Finland with Nightwish?
No, of course it’s much nicer to represent the Netherlands:) Hope to see her in Ahoy!!!
Greetings from Rotterdam
Ooh, Within Temptation and the singer of Nightwish both rumored for Eurovision! I dig, majorly. Either of them and Hooverphonic for Belgium and I’ll have all that I need.
Even if it would be kinda weird for her, but why not Within Temptation for the Netherlands and Nightwish for Finland?
I‘d like to see, that more countries have the guts to send more heavy stuff to ESC (Lordi, Teräsbetoni or most recently AWS to name what I‘ve got in mind)
Well, Within Temptation does simply not want. Leadsinger Sharon den Adel declared several times that she’d like to write a song for ESC , but not perform.
I feel Sharon is personally enthusiastic, but the rest of the band isn’t- understandable if they can’t even perform live. She’d probably go solo for the contest if she did Eurovision .
Floor Jansen was also lead vocalist of After Forever who had moderate success in Netherlands during the 2000s, they were on my playlist of numerous rock/metal bands when I was 14/15 and I even remember listening to “Energize Me” thinking ‘this is 3 minutes long and would be perfect for Eurovision!’ Floor is an amazing vocalist and is doing a splendid job as Nightwish lead vocalist, unsure how her bandmates would feel if she got the lucky deal to represent Netherlands on home soil but this is a grand opportunity AVROTROS probably can’t afford to miss, about time the Dutchies… Read more »
I actually still have a copy of their “Decipher” album that I owned back in the day! Still strange that certain bands (Nightwish, Within Temptation etc.) go really big and then other bands that are of very similar style/quality don’t.