Eurovision season this year has kicked off early, with four artists already known in December – with a song form one of them. In big news today, we found out that lucky Eurofans get another on Monday 11th December. Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS has announced that the artist representing the Netherlands at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö will be revealed at the beginning of next week.
In a video posted on AVROTROS’ Instagram and YouTube channel, they had plenty to talk about. They said that over 600 submissions were recieved for the internal selection, a record for the country. All 600+ entries were put through a rigourous evalution and sifting process to create a shortlist.
Some artists rumoured to submit entries included 2016 Eurovision alum Douwe Bob, rappers Bizzey and Kraantje Pappie coming together as a duo, and YouTubers De Bankzitters. In the past week on social media, the gossip has been heating up around artists Ilse DeLange, Karsu and Numidia though Ilse’s management have sinced denied she put her hat in the ring.
Aiming higher for 2024
There have been significant changes since Eurovision 2023 in the Dutch camp. Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper failed to qualify for the Grand Final with their ballad ‘Burning Daylight’ with only 7 points gained. Because of this, Twan van de Neiuhuijzen became the new Head of Delegation, as well as the changes to the internal selection. Some fans were hoping with the changes would come a national final – alas AVROTROS advised there wasn’t enough interest in the Dutch music industry.
The broadcaster has never been afraid to present something daring or original to the contest. They’ve given us edgy ballads from alt-songstress S10, a harmony-laced girlgroup in O’G3NE, and recently given us Jeangu Macrooy’s entry, introducing the Sranan Tongo language to the contest.
*Me waking up from my Eurovision hibernation when the Netherlands announces its artist* pic.twitter.com/pV0nWpKqy9
— Esma Jansen ? ?? (@EsmaJansen) December 8, 2023
The selection committee
In the announcement today, the selection committee detail how they wanted to look for a song that can win over the whole of Europe. Throughout the clip which details how they shortlisted, there is a lot of emphasis on setting personal taste aside to appreciate what works for a wider audience.
The committee is made up of musicians, industry speciailists, and TV personalities close to the contest including Eurovision In Concert host Cornald Maas. They started lsitening to all the songs, and shortlisting them together to 9 songs; t,his was then whittled down to five. These performed at AVROTROS HQ so the committee could get a feel for the artist as a performer. From here they chose the Dutch representative.
They explained that it was hard choosing, as they were comparing “apples to oranges, it’s Mondrian and Rembrandt” – meaning the songs were so different to each other. From this statement, we could get any genre come through to Malmö.
We absolutely cannot wait to see who is brought into the Class of 2024 on Monday, and into the Eurovision bubble. We will have to wait a while to hear their song, but we can still get excited anyway, right?
Who would you like to see representing The Netherlands at Eurovision 2024? What genre are you hoping to see from the artist? What is your favourite Dutch entry, and why? Let us know in the comments below!
Joost Klein represents The Netherlands.
As a Dutchman, for me it doesn’t matter who represents us, as long as it is not Louisa Janssen.. If she represents us, it will be the easiest 0 points The Netherlands has ever gotten.
Good luck in Malmö Joost! Can’t wait to hear your song!
Significant changes, I wouldn’t say that, they replaced singer Jan Smit for two similar singers that’s about it. I sincerely hope their choise will be excting and out of the box, but I have little hope.
Joost for eurovision!
A participant with turkish or moroccon roots for the Netherlands would be very interesting for Mr.Wilders….
Give me Douve Bob!
Use protection…
Maybe all these women wanted to get pregnant. We don’t know that!
He’s in rehab at the moment, He wrote a song for Dutch singer Numidia, chances are big it will be chosen, but it’s not what I hope.
Let it be Joost, please. Don’t crush his dream, AVROTROS.
Avrotros wants to aim higher, not even lower
I think I’m fine with just about anything we send, but please… something other than a depressing ballad for a change. What’s the point of celebrating diversity in music when you’re sending the same kinda stuff every year?
True, Burning Daylight, De Diepte and Birth of a New Age are the same kinda stuff ?
The all new S11
I don’t know why but I kinda hope it’s Karsu!
Karsu hopefully, with a bilingual entry in english and turkish
Joost 2024, Merol 2025!
You have my support with these wishes.
Pro Israel – Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Czechia, UK, Azerbaijan, Armenia, The Netherlands, Finland, Albania, Cyprus.
Pro P4lestine – Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Spain,
Russia, Sweden, Malta, San Marino, Luxembourg.And the others are “On the fence”… It’s going to be very interesting ESC for sure..
Totally not goin against the “united by music” slogan, maybe you shouldn’t watch…
It’s totally not that black & white. E.g. in the Netherlands politicians state that Israel has the right to defend itself, but that the number of victims in gaza should have been limited. A lot of pro palestina demonstrations too. So, not that black & white at all.
Israeli here
We don’t act like that… We don’t want pity points or political voting
Just ignore Noam600 when it comes to this type of comments, thanks xo
Don’t you get it? No one likes Israelis in here! For years they are against any song that Israel sends, their worst nightmare is that Israel will win again in 2024.. They are so mad that Israel now 1st in the odds. No one likes you here Roy, you really need to wake up ASAP. Anyways I like how they were so angry thar Noa got the 3rd place overall, 2nd in the juries and 1st in the “Rest of the world” vote.
That’s how Netta won the public vote in 2018?
There’s a lot of hate, I’m not blind, but don’t be so extreme about it…
I doubt BOTH Armenia AND Azerbaijan would be on the same side…
What does that have to do with the article? Ugh
tbh The Dutch government is pro-Israel most people certainly are not.
* most Muslims, but they don’t count as Dutch
Most people simply don’t care cuz they have bigger things to worry about, like housing and not goin broke.
Another Snooze Fest?
if s10 is snooze fest then snooze me up pitch
There is only one artist I hope for and thats Karsu. She would guarantee us a high place in jury voting because of her incredible voice and also in televoting because of her background.
Next week will be cool!
Monday: The Netherlands artist
Tuesday: Slovenia artist+Czechia results
Thursday: Spain Benfest songs
On Tuesday we will have our second official song for Esc 2024!
However in another esc site news they say that The Netherlands will reveal their song too on Monday, it would be surprising but I’d love it!
ten ukrainian wildcard songs will be also announced next week. On Friday
Cool! A busy week is coming
No. Dutch song in march.
You’re probably mean that the Netherlands Will also release the song title on Monday?
My wishlist consists out of Claude, Ronde or chef special. Or Joost Klein for that frisian representation of course.
Sorry but please not Numidia.. Or atleast not this specific year because if she gets chosen with the best song out of the record 600 submitted after all the promotion she got on avrotros the last few months, that selection would just feel ungenuine for a second year on a row.
And dutch people will hate me but I would LOVE Suzan & Freek at eurovision. First of all you can’t get a more perfect representation of the netherlands than them, they are authentic, all round liked by many people and they make contemporary music in dutch which might cross borders because they convey emotion so well. Just like S10 did with ‘de diepte’.
Can I just ask why Suzan & Freek is so disliked by some people? I remember seeing people on Reddit writing how they were fearing them being selected to represent Netherlands at ESC. I discovered them through a fan contest and honestly quite enjoyed their music.
There are two types of dutch people: those who love Suzan & Freek and those who hate them with all their guts and glory. I think the polarisation stems from their popularity where their music is everywhere on the radio, in the supermarket. They are unavoidable and their songs are absolute earwurms that you can’t get out of your head for the rest of the week. My best friend will smack and curse me if I start singing ‘blauwe dag’. They are the modern equivalent to traditional oldfashioned dutch pop music like nick & Simon. That’s a very hated genre… Read more »
“De diepte” is one of my favourite dutch entries !
Numidia reportedly has a song by Douwe Bob, it is a bilingual song, in both english and a berber language
a country ballad by a hip hop artist
Agree!
They owe Lenny Kuhr a big apology after cutting her out of the Songfestivalfeest broadcast last year. They chased her up and pressured her to perform, so she did. She then invited family and friends around to watch it on television, only to discover she was not included. Sad. For this reason, they should give her the job.
If not, I will settle for Douwe Bob.
Aiming higher is easy here. There’s literally nowhere to go but up from 2023. I see the committee decided to ignore taking the blame. Why else would Cornald still have this job?
Yes and no, some people left the committee, and artists are now asked to sing their song live (which to me should have always been the case lol). I dont think theyre necessarily ignoring to take the blame, they are brushing it away.
Jan Smit who was the only one that spoke out against the train wreck of 2023 left, right? Seems like someone else should’ve been shown the door instead.
I think a big dutch name is coming, it’s very promising but above all bring back the dutch language and an entry in the same style as S10’s song in 2022, it would be very cool!
But to get the song we will have to wait until March I guess…
I couldn’t agree more! De Diepte is my favourite entry that my country sent, so I would love to see Dutch become more common in our entrees
Fingers crossed!
Hopefully André Hazes Jr, or at the very least a levenslied song!
I hope not, that’d genuinely get us another NQ with 0 points lol. That’s also why I don’t want a National selection, because you’ll get people like André Hazes Jr who participate and who would actually get selected, simply because they have a lot of fans in the Netherlands.
No offense if you like that type of music, but it would genuinely not get us a better score than what we got last year with Mia & Dion.