From 2019 Eurovision winner to TikTok viral sensation, Duncan Laurence’s star has continued to rise since his win in Tel Aviv. Now the Dutch singer has added “performing on U.S. television” to his list of accomplishments. The “Arcade” hitmaker continued his introduction to potential throngs of new fans with his debut performance on American television on the morning talk show, the TODAY show, on Wednesday 24 February.
Duncan Laurence performs “Arcade” on America’s TODAY show
After both Duncan and his record company Capitol Records announced his appearance just a few days before, anticipation among his legion of supporters was high. Eager fans had to wait a long time, as Duncan’s segment didn’t happen until the last ten minutes of the third hour (with little set-up beforehand). TODAY’s third hour co-hosts Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer introduced Duncan by praising his Eurovision 2019 win. They went on to mention “Arcade”‘s billion streams, while his Small Town Boy album cover art flashed on screen.
Dreyer showed she had done her research about Duncan, mentioning how he had used music to channel his pain from being bullied in grade school into positivity. Asked how he hoped his music would inspire others, Duncan said, “Well, I hope that when they listen to my music… and they see that a small-town boy from such a tiny country can do this, can chase his dreams, I hope they can get inspired from that and chase their dreams.” Beautiful words!
After Melvin referred to Duncan as a “small town boy in a big arcade” (a lyric from his own song), there was a funny moment, as Duncan schooled both hosts on how to pronounce his hometown of Hellevoetsluis, Netherlands. After warning the hosts not to break their tongues, Dreyer drew praise from Duncan for near-perfect pronunciation. Once that was over, they got right to his performance. There may have been some initial disappointment to some fans, seeing that the performance was pre-recorded, but that was quickly forgiven.
Set on a separate soundstage from the TODAY show studio, Duncan was at the centre, in the shadows, but surrounded by soft spotlights. A circle of violin and other string instruments instantly added a new emotional depth to the song. A sweeping camera shot came right to Duncan as he began to sing the opening words. Panning back out, we see the simplicity of the staging, obviously intended to focus attention on Duncan’s amazing voice. As the song reached it’s “get me off this rollercoaster” climax, a single spotlight shined down on him, giving memories of his Eurovision performance. Aided by the stringed instruments, the performance built right up to the last moments, when everything else stopped, and we’re just left with Duncan singing the last sweeping and emotional notes. A beautiful end to a performance that will hopefully serve as a new beginning to Duncan’s rising star in the US!
We say “Goed gedaan” (Well done), Duncan!
What did you think of Duncan’s TODAY show performance? Let us know in the comments below.
Then he shouldn’t leave. So you can hear it again.
Let’s be honest. This year there’s not even one song as good as this!!!
Voila?
Not even close!!!
I do not agree. There are a lot of good songs this year
the performance was magical, so beautiful!
Duncan has the potential of being an artist like Sam Smith. You don’t need to have hits, just good singles that are appreciated by radio and an audience that follows you in your intimate concerts. No scandals or sexualised songs.
Damn, that hairstyle.
I was a little irritated by him calling the Netherlands a tiny country. 16 million people is not tiny. Dutch people have a long history, good and bad. New York, where GMA comes from, was once called New Amsterdam.
Other than that, I loved it.
tiny compared to US.
lol im sorry but the netherlands is smaller than Lake Victoria. And compared to the US, it’s 260 times smaller. Duncan is right
I wasn’t talking about just physical size, and neither was he. New York is tiny. London is tiny. Beijing is tiny.
Every country of Europe, (except Russia) even Germany, is tiny when compared to the US…
I don’t know why he seemed so surprised that a Dutch person could be successful…he was talking as if nobody had ever even heard of The Netherlands.
His perfomance was amazing! The life instruments elevated even more the song. Well done! Indeed a good and lasting winner.
Glad to see him there. Who would have thought it? Tik Tok really gave this song the best possible second live. Duncan may be now the most succesful Eurovision winner of the last two decades.
It’s so weird that this song is just now getting its international recognition! But better late than never, congrats Duncan!
On the back of this comment, surely I’m not the only one that thinks this song sounds better now than it did in 2019?
Im so happy he went super viral on tiktok and now his song is the most stressed spotify song in eurovision history, followed by mahmood. The 2019 alumni smashing jt
Congrats Duncan on surviving inane US morning television. 🙂
Good luck to him, but ‘cracking America’ is not that easy…
it is absolutely possible if you have a great song and supported by your label.
USA is just a big market, but it will never happen. If he wants big markets he should try Russia and China.
For americans ESC will always be just another talent show. This will never be out of their minds. No offence to the real ESC fans from USA.
China is very foreign with their own rules. Plus, not a streaming power.
Russia televised ESC and it’s not a big market for music.
USA is the biggest market with Billboard charts. A hit in US becomes a worldwide hit.
Arcade is happening there, it’s n27 on US Adult Top 40 radio and n15 on Adult Contemporary radio. No ESC song has achieve this type of success before on radio (i guess since Gina G)
What a beautiful performance. The Netherlands must be so proud of Duncan. He seems so down to earth. Amazing.
A beautiful performance Duncan !! I am so proud of you !!
Cool! Now for the reality,…
Will this make Duncan and/or ESC popular here in the States? Nope! This was shown during the 5-15 minutes of a 3-hour broadcast. During that timeframe, most Americans are not watching the program.
If people want ESC to be more popular here in the States, they need to follow the path of BTS and other non-American musicians follow to become huge hits. You have to cater to us, not vice versa.
I doubt that the goal was to make ESC more popular. Last year has been horrible for most of us, but also for the music industry. The new success of Arcade surely must have felt very welcome for Duncan, his record company and the people surrounding him. They would be mad not to get as much advantage as possible from that during these hard times.
If the record company wanted to take full advantage, they would’ve had him on during the first 2 hours or on GMA or THE VIEW if they wanted him on daytime TV. Having him on that late in the show was a waste of time. They did the same thing with Netta. And, does the average American know of her? No. For the average American, the only current popular Israeli that comes to mind is Gal Gadot.
ESC artists, make your American debuts on late-night shows that are hosted by James Corden, Stephen Colbert, or Jimmy Fallon.
Arcade was added to US Pop radio a few days ago. Let’s see how that works out.
as if it was that easy to get chosen to be a part of one of those late-night shows. sometimes even bigger celebrities get denied.
I don’t think he requested to become the next Drake. He just agreed to perform on that tv show that’s all
Sponsored by Citibank as part of their ongoing music series during that hour of the show.
Good for him that he will be on the Ellen DeGeneres show on April 6th then…
She’s no longer at the top. Ellen has lost viewers after we found out that she’s not nice to her staff. She even treated Nikki from NikkiTutorials rudely.
Goed gedaan Duncan! That was clearly a majestic performance once again. Even though I had other favourites back in 2019, right now this is the only one I totally love from that year
Actually a splendid live performance. Better than in ESC
That taped performance was just beautiful.