It will go down in history as the song contest that never was. But just as fans wonder what could have been at Eurovision 2020, so too do the artists. And that’s the case with the Netherlands’ Jeangu Macrooy.
In a recent interview with our William, the “Grow” singer tells us that he “might” have won this year’s edition, if certain things had fallen into place.
Could Jeangu Macrooy have won Eurovision 2020?
While Jeangu wasn’t necessarily high on the bookie or fan rankings at the time of cancellation, there was a certain amount of support bubbling under for the home entry. This was particularly so after the singer delivered a sublime acoustic performance of “Grow” on DWDD.
So, we asked him straight out — did Jeangu think he could have won Eurovision 2020 with “Grow”?
The unassuming singer’s first response was to laugh. But after a moment of consideration, he outlined a potential path to victory.
Firstly, it’s all about creating a feeling and connecting with the audience.
“Well, let me put it like this. I think, at the end of the day, it’s about what you feel… if something gives you a feeling. And I think this song was all about that. I also believe that it’s a very universal theme”.
Jeangu explains that this is what happened on the “Grow” music video shoot. All the participants were ordinary people rather than actors. And all of them were touched by the song, sharing their own experiences and struggles.
And while Eurovision is a song contest on paper, Jeangu is well aware that there’s much more to a winning entry.
“With all of the plans we had for the staging and the way my team worked on it and we were all on the same page, I do think that if I performed on the 16th and put everything — my heart and soul — into it, it might have transcended to Europe. And, yeah, I think I might have won”.
He adds, “but we’ll never know. Maybe next year”.
Eurovision staging
On the staging, Jeangu says that it would have been quite simple and intimate.
“It was going to start very intimate and very small — as if you’re sitting in the room with me while I was writing it the first time. But also the end is quite euphoric and hopeful. So, that was going to be a steady growth in the way the visuals developed and I wanted really the end to be this explosion of optimism and hope”.
Jeangu Macrooy — Eurovision 2020 Interview
In the almost 36:00 minute interview, Jeangu touches on a multitude of topics — from his youth in Suriname to the moment he came out in the Netherlands. All the main talking points are listed below along with their respective timestamps.
00:00 – Intro
01:00 How are you coping with lockdown?
02:25 Tell us more about Suriname — what should we know?
03:35 Does Surinamese culture influence your music today?
04:55 How did you view The Netherlands when you were a kid?
06:22 Jeangu has a twin!
07:17 What prompted the move from Suriname to The Netherlands?
08:39 “Off of the plane and out of the closet”
10:15 How did the freedom of being out impact your music?
11:10 Where were you when you found out Eurovision 2020 was cancelled?
12:51 Where were you in the creative process? Did you have your ESC 2020 staging ready?
13:30 “The live performance is when the magic happens for me”
13:50 DWDD live performance
14:45 What was the starting point for writing “Grow”
17:00 What struggle motivates the song — was it a mental health issue?
18:30 Getting personal messages from fans
19:05 How did you get the invitation to sing at Eurovision?
20:24 What were your fears as a child?
22:15 Do you think you could have won Eurovision 2020?
23:55 Can you tell us about your planned Eurovision staging?
25:00 Would you have had backing vocalists?
24:20 Who are these people in the music video? Is this a real therapy session?
27:15 When were you confirmed for Eurovision 2021?
28:20 Will this songwriting experience be different now that you know you’re going to Eurovision
29:20 Will your 2021 song be similar to “Grow”?
30:30 Acoustic live performance at Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
31:55 Live performance in Rotterdam Ahoy as it was being converted to a hospital.
33:20 Could you sing a little bit of your song?
Are you excited for Jeangu’s 2021 return? What kind of song do you hope he brings? Let us know in the comments below.
Is anyone from the Wiwibloggs team going to post a response to the Shine a Light show. Considering that was the official EBU show I am really surprised that there hasn’t been any reaction from the team. I am very interested in your opinions. Also on a different theme. Does anyone think that the contest was cancelled a bit too early. Here’s flights starting up again. Many countries with very low rates of the virus. If it was knocked back to October or November I genuinely think it could have been a success. No audience but still everything else would… Read more »
Unfortunately, we have JESC in autumn.
Nonesense. The song is not bad but we all know France would be the winner ! The most beautiful voice, singer and song ! It’s so un-fair that the EBU wont give us our rightfull title ! Tom Leeb would have won !
Are you mad?
sure, jan
This is a really good song and one of my favourites this year. While I do think this could’ve broken the curse of the host country finishing bottom 5, it wouldn’t have won.
This could’ve come top 10 with the juries.
But it wouldn’t do well with the televote.
I think they would get around 120 points from the juries
And around 25 points from the televote.
That’s a decent score!
Like a lot of others I actually prefer this over Arcade. I just didn’t get the hype over that song. Having said that I don’t think this song would have done particularly well. If you can please watch the unofficial final which has both juries and a public vote. I won’t give a spoiler alert but let’s say that the result is quite an eye opener.
There was more chance of Hungary or Montenegro winning 2020 than this chap
Lithuania is the winner!!!
LOL don’t make me laugh….besides the song not being televote-friendly, the likelihood of the same country winning two years in a row is extremely low and hasn’t been done since the ’90s (when the contest had fewer countries competing and a completely different format).
It was a nice song and the juries would’ve liked it but I couldn’t imagine the public (apart from Belgium) giving it any points, but I guess he has so say that he could’ve won.
He’s delusional, his song was a crap
I believed in him.
Ah man, it would’ve been sweet like Gala Atari…who won the song contest for Israel — “WHEN THE SONG CONTEST WAS ALREADY IN ISRAEL” 😀
Or Salomé, or Ann Marie David, or Niamh Kavanagh, or Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan…
Or Lys Assia…
Of course, Jonas, absolutely!
I just enjoy the meme of Assi Azar mentioning, at every opportunity, that Israel won Eurovision when it was already in Israel. (That’s why I used the quotes).
*Gali Atari
(Casual glance at Kobi Marimi) “No pressure!”
@wiwi: the second video, of the live performance, is blocked in the Netherlands “due to copyright reasons”. Perhaps you could try to have it unblocked?
I don’t think he would have won, but if he didn’t believe his song was worthy of winning, why send it? I hope everybody believes of themselves that they could have or should have won
Mmm, I don’t think this would have won but rather be on the bottom 5.
It would do well with juries, and remember Netherlands has some televote support from countries like Belgium
I think it would’ve been a solid top 10. A great song!
I don’t think it would have won, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t have been a deserving winner.
Reminds me of a certain perfume commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddvWmdbGNN0
I don’t think he would have won, but I really do hope he would have done well 🙂 His song is so beautiful and genuine
I mean…I had it second behind Lithuania. Still one of my favorites of this year. Juries would’ve loved it. I could even see it being a surprise jury winner in the same vein as North Macedonia or Austria. But it wouldn’t win the whole thing.
I think it would finish top 10 with juries and bottom 10 with televoters
Depends on the staging. If it was more like “You Let Me Walk Alone” and less like “O jardim” I could still see televoters giving it a respectable finish.
Ahahajhahahaa, i am laughing…. Ahahahaha, well positive thoughts are important in life… He to won? Hahahaha this made my day
He wouldn’t have won, but its good to be confident
I like when they at least pretend to be humble
It was in my top ten and definitely was worthy of getting a lot of consideration from juries but no, I couldn’t see this being the song that people picked up the phone for, to the point of accumulating a televote score to put it in the actual top ten.
It might have been a surprising top 10 wit juries (or even more, maybe a top 3) but it would probably have flopped very hard with televote. It would’ve ended up 10 at the very very best, but personally (and that’s juste my opinion) Ithink would’ve flopped wit both juries and televote, just like almost every song from the organizer country.
Confidence is important but so is being realistic. No way was this a winning song. 11- 15 at best, no more. Bit better than host entries usually do. He seems to fall in common ESC trap of thinking “it worked last year, it works this year too”. It rarely does. ..
Its a beautiful song but kinda far from winning. Could be top 15 with the right performance
Exactly what I think. AVROTROS are getting a lot better at staging their entries
My most streamed and absolute favourite song of the year. Started high on my top 10 from the get go and on the night of Eurovision Shine a Light it was clear to me that this was my 2020 winner. Brilliant song and very impactful live. I strongly believe it would’ve done surprisingly well, sneaking into the top 5. In a year full of “out there” entries, I think the intimacy of this song would strike a chord with viewers. But then again this year had 10 songs that could potentially win, so any prediction about what could have been… Read more »
I’ve heard ‘Grow’ about eight times and it just hasn’t grown on me. Also, these days the defending champions tend to have poor results. Everyone knows who were the previous year’s winners and tend not to vote for that country again. So I think ‘Grow’ would have been 2020’s ‘Home’ / ‘O Jardim’ / ‘Time’ / ‘I Am Yours’. However I am still playing all 2020 songs every day and it may yet click.
As usual agree Fatima
Or it could get a similar result to Taken By A Stranger, maybe slightly lower
My 25th place after France in my opinion. My prediction, best case scenario, Jury 15th Televote 20th.
I recon the winners would likely have been…. Russia, Lithuania, Iceland, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and if they had great staging could have gone to the countries Germany, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Israel, Armenia
This song is great. Televoting would have killed it but juries should have respected this.
Might I suggest that Wiwi uses a very clickbait headline here.
LMFAO. He was clearly destined for last place possibly with 0 points. Worse than Portugal 18 and worse than Austria 15
Agree a 0 point contender
Yeeesh, I really enjoy his song and I think it had a sliver of a chance of winning but I personally find it really distasteful for any competitor to say something like that.
Yeesh… It’s so distasteful for a competitor in a competition to say that he “thinks” that he “might” have won, when asked the question directly. Really?
What do you expect him to say? If he said he only wanted the right-hand side people would be complaining that he’s not aiming high enough.
He’s said nothing distasteful at all.
Just my opinion, 😉
How delusional. He could have won yeah. He could have easily won a place in the bottom 5.
My last place
…the delusion. Even though it’s well liked now I don’t recall it being well received when it was released. It’s not a very instant song, which is not a luxury you have at ESC, especially as an AQ. Not to mention Switzerland does the same thing much better. I also doubt that given that the coronavirus situation that a song that wasn’t uptempo would win as people would’ve looked to Eurovision as a light in the darkness and the winner probably would’ve reflected that.
So you’re telling me this would have beat out the likes of Bulgaria, Switzerland and Italy, all of which are ballads and were fan and bookie favourites, and all the uptempo songs that were favourites? I think not.
Plus The Common Linnets were an exception, not the norm.
But this could have been an exception too. We’ll never know…
No one expected Portugal to do well in 2017. The thought of it actually winning was practically non-existent in people’s minds until that week in Kyiv.
Yes you are a very intelligent Eurovision theorist Kredential. THANK YOU FOR SHARING!
The winner would have been Lithuania Romania or Germany.
Such a useful and meaningful opinion. Thanks!
It is because we are talking about if he could win and they are saying who would have won instead of him.
Germany and Romania? As much as I like these songs, none of these two could have won.