Eurovision 2023 season is creeping up on us, and as another day goes by, we have our next contestant. Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper will represent the Netherlands in Liverpool.
Mia and Dion have teamed up with Eurovision 2019 winner Duncan Laurence and songwriter Jordan Garfield to craft the Dutch entry for Eurovision 2023.
The dynamic duo are keeping the song under wraps for now. However, Dutch TV bosses have promised the track will be “distinctive, outspoken and meaningful”.
The Netherlands Eurovision 2023: Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper
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Mia Nicolai, 26, is a singer-songwriter from Amsterdam. She’s travelled around the world to find her sound, and is now settled in Los Angeles.
In 2020, her single “Mutual Needs” received international acclaim, premiering on the Zane Lowe Radio Show in the USA.
Dion Cooper, 28, is a songwriter and guitarist inspired by rock legends like Toto, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. He describes his sound as a blend of Bryan Adams and Harry Styles.
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In 2021, Dion Cooper released his debut EP Too Young Too Dumb. In the same year, he supported Duncan Laurence on his tour of the Netherlands.
Mia and Dion said: “The Eurovision Song Contest is the place where people can see what you have to offer as an artist. After all these years of hard work, translating our feelings into music, this is a great opportunity to tell our story on such a large scale.
“It feels fantastic and a little unreal that the AVROTROS selection committee has chosen our song, but we’re ready to share something really positive with Europe.”
Speaking on behalf of the song selection committee, Eric van Stade, general director at broadcaster AVROTROS, said: “We received a lot of songs this year, especially from young talent, which is a great development. Dion Cooper and Mia Nicolai are themselves unconventional young talents, as well as songwriters with a story to tell.
“The selection committee were, without exception, very positive about their song, in which their voices work together beautifully. Though we can’t say too much now about the song, we can say it’s a song that’s distinctive, outspoken and meaningful, and we have no doubt will stand out in a positive sense from the field of Eurovision contestants.”
What do you think? Are you excited to hear Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper at Eurovision 2023? Share your thoughts below.
We don’t even know what the song will sound like yet everyone already thinks it’s going to do well…
There are several reasons why people think the song will be good.
Duncan Laurence wrote and selected the artists. The artists are both great. AVROTROS have sent quality acts consistently… etc.
If Salvador Sobral, Netta or Maneskin wrote a song and selected artists to sing it, we’d also have high expectations.
In response to @Frisian esc: I totally disagree with him. In all honesty he forgets one pivotal element here: financial reasons. Looking at this year’s withdrawals from Montenegro, North-Macedonia and Bulgaria, and the ongoing absence of nations like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovakia, one tends to forget the massive entrance fee costs of the contest. I know that an internal selection is always cheaper than an extensive stretched out national final, which, like in Sweden, have become nothing more than A) a tremendous financial burden for SVT and B) are mainly platforms for huge record companies like Warner. So in all honesty,… Read more »
BTW, regardless of what you think of the selection committee’s choice, the discography of artists Dion Cooper & Mia Nicolai is beyond stunning if you ask me. Way more interesting than last year’s S10’s music catalogue and Jeangu’s discography. Yesterday I organized my music jukebox a bit and I rated all songs from Dion Cooper & Mia Nicolai, and also the entries sang by Duncan Laurence that were composed by producer LUKAZ and composer Jordan Garfield. Note the ones I rated with 5 stars. “Know”, “Stars”, “Cold” and especially “Blue Jeans” scream ‘winner’ to me. Add to that the set-up… Read more »
stars is prachtig
I totally believe cornald maas is an approachable person but when every year out of all the entries, the one where the former eurovision contestant acts in a sort of mentor role gets chosen, it does make you think, how much chance did songs of equal quality of other artists had to get chosen? Like this is the third time in 10 years that this happened next to waylon going the second time. If you want as many artists as possible to submit a song in the future you want to prevent suspicion of bias and they should atleast try… Read more »
Off course I’ll support our artists if the song is good but I still think a bit of transparency is important either way 🙂
I don’t really get what the problem is with transparency. Like, in 2012 when we had our last national final, was the way in which the songs for that final were selected any more transparent?
The thing with an internal selection is that you give the job of selecting your entry to a group of people who you trust that they know what they’re doing. And seeing what kind of entries we’ve had and their results, I don’t think we have that much to complain about.
I see it differently. The quality upgrade since 2013 within the Dutch decision making process of broadcaster AVROTROS, immediately means that all aspects get that upgrade as well, including staging directors and coaches. You tend to forget that every year now the Dutch broadcaster is already rehearsing the entire staging concept in Hilversum. So, everything has been hugely professionalized. JUST like Sweden, but only within the concept of internal selection and not a national final selection. Having said that, I firmly believe that FOREMOST the committee is looking at song quality. And if that ‘accidentally’ means that there’s already a… Read more »
Agree. At least in Malta we can look forward to 40 performers and songwriters we have never heard of!
I agree with the comment down here about our jury creating a Dutch ESC ‘incrowd’. Lets look at it like this: Every single year they receive hundreds of entries and the last few years they chose: – a song supported by ilse delange, a song supported by anouk, waylon a second time, and now a song with the support of duncan laurence with him getting a ‘mentor function’ Yes we’re doing great the last few years but if we look at it realistically, what’s more logical: does the best song get send in by people with these convenient connections every… Read more »
Also Cornald Maas made a comment today saying something along the lines of ‘the only thing famous people usually do at eurovision is scorch their reputation’.
Nice way to burn future options..
Sounds like Cornald Maas is a very impertinent person and, now that I’ve seen you Dutch guys sharing your concerns, they make sense :/
Well, I am Dutch, and I disagree like……….100%? No, 275%….with Frisian esc. I’m all in for being self-critical towards my own nation. But bringing this stuff up when so many other talents……NEW independent talents are involved, I find it pretty grotesque to turn this into one giant ‘authoritarian Duncan’-story or ‘AVROTROS-elite-country-club-full-of-snobs’-story. It’s wrong, and at this stage way too soon to criticize the selection committee with such bias. Wait and see, and let’s focus on the song.
Thx for the insight, for me, as someone who doesn’t know about what’s going on locally or backstage, it’s always refreshing to hear new points of view 🙂
By the way, Cornald is one of the most approachable and kind persons I know. He always gives a small comment or retweet if you reply to him on Twitter. He’s the most horizontally-thinking, humble, humane and friendly supporters within AVROTROS that I know of. After having sent him an email that I adored his biographical novel “Ach Kind Toch”, he sent me a huge reply back. Really, we should be lucky to have him sterring the national song contest ship :-).
Then why does he have to comment disrespectfully to acts and artist?
I’m sorry but the things you say are the complete opposite of what I have seen and heard from him, both as commentator and presenter
I think that one remark is taken totally out of context and doesn’t do Cornald’s work, in which for 99% of the cases he has shown his kind and empathic behaviour, any justification. Look, humans make mistakes,but he is by far not as nasty as the late Terry Wogan or current commentator Graham Norton, who really ridicules much more. Cornald himself created a professional attitude with regard to the contest, that even at this stage should be copied by nations like the UK.
In honesty, I wouldn’t even know what comment that would be. I just know what I’ve seen at ‘het grote songfestivalfeest’ and eurovision in concert and it was far from impressive. At EiC he constantly had cards with him to announce the artists. How interested in ESC are you when you can’t even announce artists without cards. Half of the audience knew more about the artists than him! So unprofessional. I’m sure that after the next songfestivalfeest I will have at least 3 more examples of disrespectful comments or unprofessional behaviour. I do agree with you about Graham Norton’s commentary… Read more »
This sounds promising from the get-go, the Dutch have been on a roll ever since their found their groove and next year won’t be an exception to their recent track record. Especially bc of everyone involved here! 😀
dunce laurence is involved and he’s known success poison for himself and for anyone he collabs with, holland will flop next year i fear.
Man, wtf did Duncan do to you for you to hate him so much?
He’s still salty that Mahmood lost in 2019.
Jeez! I wouldn’t doubt that but he should move on from that, even Italy already won afterwards XD
Whats a holland? I thought the Netherlands was participating? So we’re gettin some new debuts after all! Guess we don’t need Kazakhstan
There seems to be a pay it forward cycle with Dutch Eurovision artists. Ilse DeLange was Duncan Laurence’s coach on the Dutch version of the voice and his mentor for Eurovision 2019 and now he’s working with Mia and Dion for their Eurovision entry. I find it really sweet.
It is rumoured that the song title is ‘Chasing highs’
This sounds very promising. I’m hoping for another Dutch win!
For those complaining that these two acts aren’t ”well known”, you need to remember that Duncan Laurence wasn’t well known either. If anything, a competition of fresh talent is much more exciting than ”has beens” and talent show rejects with zero personality.
Fascinating. We haven’t had a duo from the Netherlands in a long time. I think the common linnets were the last duo Sent from the Netherlands to Eurovision.
The Common Linnets is a duo + band mix. I think that doesn’t really count tbh.
Wikipedia: “The Common Linnets are a Dutch band that was formed in 2013.”
3rd time in a row where I have no idea who our representative(s) is/are ahead of the contest haha. Hope their song is as good as Eric van Stade claims it is
A duet is a possibility for chemistry on stage!
How about going with the song that impressed them the most regardless of who wrote it?
Sounds very promising. I really hope some parts will be in Dutch though.
I don’t think that’s likely; their songs are all in English and Duncan has never written a song in Dutch either.
If you’re serious about winning, you can’t send a Dutch song. We saw that last year. S10 got a lot of compliments ahead of the contest from the Eurovision community but finished a disappointing 11th place. The general public in Europa just doesn’t find our language appealing.
Imagine De Diepte in English… Would’ve been way worse?
they seem very talented, i’m especially impressed with dion.
i have zero doubt about netherlands’ qualification. it’s just a question of how well they’ll do.
I kind of like their music style and voices as individual artists. Having Duncan Laurence there, I’m sure the pair has something good in their hands. Also the detail of the experts comitee making and unanimous choice raises the hype. Must be something interesting.
The Netherland totally had me last year with S10, though in the end the live performance was a bit empty.
I have no doubt it will be as good as what Netherlands usually gives us. But I do hope Duncan Laurence will not be the next go to artist to find new talents, like Ilse was. Like is Duncan the reason the duo was chosen? Would it have been chosen if Duncan was not involved?
Knowing that Avrotros went with S10 over Armin van Buuren last year I highly doubt Duncan was the reason Mia and Dion got chosen
S10 was a masterpiece though. The best song from 2022. Shame the live performance felt a bit empty and flat..
Duncan wasn’t involved last year and Avrotros did as fine as usual, his recommended entry was just the most liked by the panel this year.
Yea but that’s statistically very unlikely unless there is a bias at place.
In 2015 the selection panel was overwhelmed by trijntjes ‘walk along’ written by Anouk, then arcade backed up by Ilse (that was a slam dunk, still Ilses conncetion helped it get chosen for eurovision) and now they unanimously choose the song by Duncan. I don’t hate our entries but I have my questions about the way our song gets selected by the same people every year.
Ok, I get it and I feel you now, sounds more concerning than it looked like just a moment ago :/
Last year with S10 I thought ‘finally they pick something edgy and different’ but then her song turned out to be the same radio friendly semi-indie pop we’ve come to expect from the Dutch committee. This year it’s pretty much a given that we’ll be getting the same, so I’m not too excited.
you haven’t even heard the song yet so please don’t be negative, it’s so disrespectful to the artists?
S10’s song was pure quality and just about made the top 10.
The staging was the only problem with S10’s performance, but that was Italy’s fault mainly. If Turin had a stage like Stockholm 2016 I think S10’s performance would’ve been more impactful.
A duet! That’s interesting, they seem very talented, The Netherlands have already their song and their singers for the next year, they are already ready! Curious to hear it, don’t wait until the last moment to give us the song pleaaase!
A song in which Duncan is involved can only be good, really impatient to listen to it.
Controversial take from a Dutch person: I’m kinda worried that our broadcaster is creating a ‘ESC incrowd’ within the Dutch music industry. Yeah, Duncan did win, but he got selected because of his ties to Ilse, and now he’s responsible for selecting these artists. I’m looking forward to hearing their song, but to keep independent artists excited and motivated to submit their songs, AVROTROS need to make sure that they’re 100% fair & transparent.
They are fair, if they didn’t went with Armin last year Duncan being a songwriter for this song won’t be a dealmaker
Like S10 was part of a Dutch eurovision incrowd, i’m sorry but I don’t think so. But I do think it’s time for Cornald Maas to move over…
I don’t mind Cornald in the selection committee, but I don’t like his commentary and presenting (EiC) just one bit. When a song or artist is not his cup of tea he will let you know as a viewer with a false demeaning tone.
Ugh yes also don’t like his commentary, but I think Jan Smit is even worse
You’re right, he is even worse. It’s time for new commentators. I’ve been watching the Flemish commentary for years now. Peter van de Veire’s commentary is not perfect and not for everyone, but obviously much better.
Ik snap ook niet waarom Jantje Smit op die stoel zit, een beetje vriendjespolitiek
This is just a feeling and has nothing to do with facts. And who tells us that Dion Cooper and Mia Nicolai are nót independent artists? In the end for me it’s all about keeping a focus on finding the best song, whether that’s from an independent artist or an -ughh, what a negative çonnotation- ‘incrowd’ artist. Look, let’s wait for the actual song first and stop applying the underbelly emotions. Observing can be done in such ways that can actually be totally factually wrong. Perhaps the song they found wás the best there is? I am now back at… Read more »
Sounds like it’ll be an emotional modern indie-style track. I’m sure with Duncan behind them that it’ll get plenty of attention. This selection committee seems to know what they’re doing.
The general public do not give a damn about Duncan Laurence. Now he’s ruined his career he’s decided to befriend Rosa Linn and ruin hers!
I love their voices and I am curious to hear their song !! Good Luck to Them !! Make us proud !!
They seem really sweet and I trust that they will bring the Netherlands back into the top 10 but I hope that they will sing in Dutch (or at least partly)!
Sounds promising! Good luck to them!
SING IN DUTCH PLEASE!!!
I don’t think any of them sings in Dutch.
I’m Dutch and have never heard of them… I’m just listening to their songs for the first time now and Mutual Needs by Mia doesn’t sound bad at all. I’m expecting another kinda indie song, which the Netherlands has done pretty well in recent years. And I had not heard of Duncan Laurence either when he was announced as our entrant and we all know what happened. I’m curious to hear their song.
Good they learned from Jeangus disaster entries
I still believe they selected his song with the purpose of not doing well after spending lots and lots of money on the contest twice.
Absolutely, they sure showed they’re not even going to risk hosting for a third year in row
Glad they’re going for generic pop over genuinely touching personal music?
I love their voices !
They have given us great entries in the last few years.I’m sure Mia&Dion will do a great job. Best wishes!!
They look like a very charismatic duo with good looks and like they are sweet too! Have good luck in Liverpool! I love to hear the song when it’s out:)
Seems pretty interesting. Of course we have to wait for the song but I have a feeling that the Netherlands will once again be pretty high up my top.