Last night, during semi final 1 of Eurovision 2015, the Netherlands’ Trijntje failed to “Walk Along” to the grand final on Saturday. As the country comes to terms with what’s gone down, fans, commentators and media outlets are searching for answers about what went wrong.
A recurring question on Dutch Eurovision forums is why Albania qualified and the Netherlands did not. According some commenters (for example here and here) Elhaida couldn’t hit the high notes, while Trijntje slayed. Others suspect that Belgium didn’t fulfill its ‘neighbourly duties’.
zus van #trijntje maar dan met glitters en beduidend minder #stem #albanie #Eurovision2015
— Anke van Haften (@AnkevanHaften) May 19, 2015
Translation? “The sister of #trijntje but with glitter and a worse voice #albania #Eurovision2015”
Despite the fact the Netherlands has qualified for the final for two years in a row and even came second last year, some Dutch fans have already started blaming bloc voting and corruption.
That seems a bit desperate: This semi included the Nordics, the Baltics, Eastern European and Western European countries. It’s rather mixed for a bloc and, in any event, Belgium made it through. The bloc voting argument is soooo 1990, y’all.
On the Dutch television show ‘Pauw’, presenter Jeroen Pauw and guests Berget Lewis (Trijntje’s fellow “Ladies of Soul” singer), Shirma Rouse and Bert van der Veer discussed the disappointing result. Bert compared the Dutch team to kids in a toystore with too many options. With all the screens and tubes and balls in the air, they may have been at a loss about how to proceed. The guests also described Eurovision as a “tasteless festival” and questioned the camerawork in Vienna.
You can watch the full video here.
Trijntje’s Squirrel Jumpsuit
The ‘squirrel jumpsuit’ gets the hardest treatement: Ex ESC-Topper (Eurovision 1988 and 2009) Gerard Joling blamed Trijntje’s stylists: “They should be ashamed of themselves,” Gerard told Dutch newspaper Telegraaf. “She looked great in her first dress because she has nice breasts.”
https://twitter.com/Kingshaya/status/600794016649715712
Still others say more Eurovision fans voted against Trijntje’s jumpsuit rather than for the song. We understand the importance of a good costume at Eurovision — this is showbiz after all. But to compare her to a gnome after she’s already been eliminated seems unkind. It just adds insult to injury.
This is a song better for the A*Teens circa 1998 than a person with such a grown-up, soulful voice as Trijntje. Yeah, she sounded good, but the visuals were contradicting anything uplifting in the song, and that’s what they chose to portray. A bad lip reading to the tune of the Funeral March would be more believable for the visual presentation here. In the end, though, most importantly, it just was not one of the better-quality songs in the semi. And going after the incredible Belgian entry did not help matters.
I am Dutch, and just read this article about how the Dutch explain getting eliminated in the semi final. I see a whole lists of explanations, but the most commonly given by the vast majority of Dutch people and media comments is missing: the simple fact that the song was not special enough, and the performance / presentation (apart from the singing) did not work out well. Don’t paint a whole nation out to be sore losers just because of one talk show (with a host who thinks the ESF is intellectually beneath him and two very close and very… Read more »
Daphne dee is doing what they didt 70 years ago
@gaudi121 “Eurovision is a song contest and not a singing contest!”
If it’s all about the song and not about the singing, why isn’t playback allowed in Eurovision? It would help “singers” avoid the embarrassment of proving that they are unable to sing in a proper manner and it would keep the audience ears from bleeding.
The song was a total disaster!The chorus was horrible and even worse,repeated about 7 times.It was disliked by most of the people who listened to it on youtube even before the live performance.One the other hand,the albanian song was received positively and,even if the live performance was not perfect,the song was already loved and thous voted.That’s way Eurovision is a song contest and not a singing contest!
The staging was a carcrash and the song is dated (i kept thinking of Anastasia in the late 90s). She’s a fab singer but you need everything in place to qualify and this year it just didn’t work out. The booby dress would not have helped. Dressing mutton up like lamb does not improve the flavour…
Trijntje was just very bad. I really don´t get why we (the netherlands) keep sending old women. I’m not trying to insult old women here, but we have to send younger people to keep youth, nobody of our youth connects, let alone likes Trijntje. Secondly, what was she thinking with that song. Why, why why why why was also what we were thinking. And to finish, WHAT WAS THAT THING SHE WAS WEARING! She looked like a flying garbage bag… It’s a shame to read these kind of articles, we aren’t searching for excuses why she didn’t make it, we… Read more »
Daphne Dee is very proud that Belgium had qualified and that’s why she is posting this post because she is happy that the Netherlands didn’t qualify #SillyGirl
Belgium is very good, but the Netherlands will be back next year with a BBBBAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNGGGGG
I’ve rewatched both performances (Netherlands and Albania), and I must say that both were positively cringeworthy! Netherland’s because of that dreadful veil, horrible staging and the fact that she seemed uncomfortable / tired, I don’t know, but she wasn’t herself… Albania’s because of her incredibly bad singing! I don’t know if she hit a single note! Painful to watch / listen to, indeed! Was there even a song underneath those false notes and screams???????
To be honest, if it were up to me only three countries would have qualified (Belgium, Estonia and Russia). The other 7 qualifiers should have been transferred to the other semi.
Wiwibloggs, how can you make such a horrible article full of lies. Nearly everybody in the Netherlands says the song is the reason Trijntje didn’t qualify. And Elhaida Dani didn’t hit the high notes? Elhaida Dani didn’t hit one note, it was awful!
Albania and the Netherlands were my top two this semi final… And WHAT IF the Netherlands pulls a San Marino and let Trinjtje come back a 2nd time with a stronger song and costume???
@Daphne Dee:
strange
wiwibloggs himself has predicted that The Netherlands would not go to the final by block voting . it is now the second time you negatively about the Dutch. I get the feeling that you have something to provoke. Is something on your mind !!! I totally agree with stommie. You shop very selective
Coming to think of it, it seems to that Daphne Dee was shopping selectively in the reactions and news items in the Dutch media. She could have come up with lots of links to comments and articles that showed the complete opposite of what article is trying to tell us. In fact even in the days before the semi, there were lots of news items in which the failure of Trijntje was predicted.
What are those comments about THE Dutch? Because someone tweeting an opinion doesn’t mean that that reflects the opinion of the majority. From what I read in the media I don’t get the impression that THE Dutch blame bloc voting, politics or Belgium. The general opinion is that the song was poor and combined with the bad staging it’s faith was sealed.
@sasho It were the commentators who started to hate Albania and the rest took it from them. :/
She’s an excellent singer And it’s a great shame she was stuck with a dull song and has this on her CV. I’m glad she’s enjoyed this experience and hopefully we’ll see her again one day with a song that more suits her talents, with a slick performance that could win the contest.
Was it the same director from last year? The CL’s had excellent staging/direction and it seems they’ve tried to do it again with this, but it just didn’t work.
Lastly, who is that goofy creep on that tweet? I don’t like him!
I do not really like Walk Along but at least she can sing! Albania? Awful song. Awful singing. But of course this is Eurovision and therefore it qualifies.
I also wonder why Albania?! Serbia and Hungary were worse in my opinion. I refuse to accept that they “chose” Albania just because they were dressed similarly & they both had “ay ay ay”-s 😀
I am from Bulgaria and I can say that I’m not satisfied with the design of the show, the graphics and the camerawork. One more thing I have never seen revealing the finalists being done so quickly. But this is what I think about The Netherlands: Yes the song is good but not enough and the staging was not good but look back in time and see that The Netherlands have qualified for the grand final only 3 times since 2004 and 2 of them were in last 2 years. They might have thought that they will make it again… Read more »
And just for the record – I liked the song – but I didnt vote for it – because I liked others better.
Same thing happens every year – people think their song is good and deserves to qualify but doesnt. I am sure other countries are just as disappointed about missing out this year too. There can be a number or reasons why it happens. We will get to see the voting patterns soon enough and perhaps then a comment can be made – so to suggest bloc voting before the results are known is stupid. You have to be lucky to get into the final – and even luckier to win ths competition. But – a good song will win the… Read more »
Netherlands were in my top ten of semi 1.I am always waiting for live.Greece was shoked me in a good way,great vocals,attitude,power ballad but Netherlands let me down.Strange outfit,face in anger.I couldnt feel the song.
Well, it’s a shame people are saying Belgium didn’t vote enough for us.
We gave Belgium 3 points last year, so we didn’t vote for them too.
It’s maybe the point we were like: Okay, Anouk and Ilse (Common Linnets) were big stars and they always get through, so why won’t Trijntje?
My suggest for 2016: Ogene (new name of Lisa Amy and Shelley, JESC 2007 Netherlands) or Dotan!
I intended voting for Walk Along but after I saw it performed, I couldn’t. What a disaster! I would blame the staging but I have to say, what staging? She just stood there. Were her feet nailed go the floor? And that blurry close-up on her eyes? What was that about? The only movement was when the backing singers moved across the stage. Look at her performance on The Voice. It was fun & full of energy. That’s what should have gone to Vienna. I love the song but I have to say The Netherlands were the worst country in… Read more »
The most people had the Netherlands in their top 10 of the first semi final. My 7th place that night. The problem was that almost nobody had her at least on their top 3, and that means no votes. Her vocals were fine, the song ok, but damn the camera’s during the performances it was awefull. I said before i don’t want sweden to win, cause i want to see a diffrent country, well i take it back this contest in vienna really lets me down. No victory for Austria again :/ No humor, Great arena! good songs, great voices,… Read more »
Why be so negative about The Netherlands? When Conchita won last year the Russian media and politics were all about trashing the eurovision and called it a freakshow and now it’s all about loving Russia and Polina. There were 5 other countries that didn’t qualify teusday and there media weren’t positive either. So why highlight the dutch reactions to there loss? And you highlight a few reactions as they represent all 17 million dutchies? What’s up with that? I remember when Belgium didn’t qualify year after year after year, the Belgium media was also very negative about other contestants and… Read more »
The performance wasn’t memorable. I like the song but I think most of us realised on watching the semi-final that there was no way it could stand out enough to qualify.
The song wasn’t bad but the staging was boring and awful!!!!
I’m Dutch, and let’s face it: our song was mediocre at best, but it’s the staging that really killed it (wrong outfit, wrong camera angles, no choreography to speak of). You can’t just send a great singer and expect votes to come your way simply because she hits her notes. It’s Eurovision, people, it doesn’t work that way. So let’s stop blaming bloc voting and up our game next year.
I think I’ll adopt Spain for the grand final. Go Edurne!
That’s just dutchmedia. Trijntje can’t help that. Trijntje was still extremely positive about the competition and said she wanted to enter the contest again. She had a wonderful time and showed herself as a classy loser. She also aknowledged the bad camera work and the staging. It just didn’t came out right. She stated that they are going to evaluate everything. This just wasn’t our year. I hope The Netherlands will participate again and that Trijntje will do it again in about 2 or 3 years, but then in a way she wants it. Just she and a guitarist. Pure… Read more »
The original mistake with giving Anouk all power and decision making back in late 2014. There is just no excuse for the final outcome when the team had more than 6 months to get their act together and deliver the song with a clear and coherent vision of how to make the most out of it.
Walk Along is nowhere near as good as Birds or the Common Linnets, but I still think it deserved to qualify. Yes, there were a lot of issues on Tuesday (camera work, staging, quality of the song, etc.), but it was still better than a couple songs that qualified. Serbia’s entry is tasteless and dreadful, and the more I listen to Elhaida’s performance, the more I realize how out of tune and pitchy she was (if she sings like that on Saturday, she will surely miss the top 10). Moreover, bloc voting is not to be completely ruled out here:… Read more »
I’m not sure that Albania deserved the final, but the Netherlands surely don’t.
A song half-finished, with too many y-y-y-y-y to fill the lack of creativity.
I BELIEVE FROM MEXICO THAT THE TOP 10 WAS THE BEST SONGS IN YHE NIGTH THE NETHERLANDS WAS A LITTLE LIMITATED WINT BAD DRESS BORING SCREEN EFECTS AND AGRESIVE CAMERA MOVINGS THAT I DONT UNDERSTAND I PREFERED TO CHANGE MY EYES TO OTHER DIRECTION. SORRY THE MENSAJE FROM ALBANIA IS CLEAR AND DIFERENT AND TOUCH THE HEART, ITS RIGT SHE DONT SING PERFECT, BUT, HOW SAYS ASTRID HADAD ARTIST MEXICO- LIBANESE “YES I AM BAD BAD BAD, BUT PRETTY”
Well, it is a song contest and not a music class exam. All the components of the song matter. While Elhaida’s performance wasn’t HER best, it was much much better than many other performances on Tuesday. Remember Sertab Erener, Ruslana, or even Loreen or Emily DeForest? They didn’t deliver a pitch perfect performance either, yet they won. Sorry Netherlands for your loss, but DON’T MESS WITH SUCCESS!
The Netherlands’ performance was flat and unengaging – and yes, Trijntje’s outfit was unflattering. Her vocal was fine, but the song’s so repetitive and fails to build to a decent climax. Ergo, there was nothing in the package that would inspire people to vote for it. I wouldn’t say quite the same thing about Albania, although I’ll be surprised if they qualified higher than 10th/9th. ‘I’m Alive’, at least, is less repetitive and more dynamic. The vocal was gutsier, if not as competent as Trijntje’s. Just because a country had great success one year doesn’t mean they’re automatically entitled to… Read more »
Oh and who are we to blame to say Belgium didn’t fulfill their neighbouring duties? I remember we gave Axel Hirsoux only 3 points in the semi final last year..
Dutchy with an answer right here: the song sucked, the staging sucked. The only thing good were her vocals, but that doesn’t get you far with an awful song and staging.
As a Dutch guy I wasn’t even rooting for her, but for Estonia and neighbours Belgium.
Oh, it’s like this in Finland but raised to the ten. Some (most journalists) blame Eastern Europe and discrimination. Some (few journalists and a large portion of the commoners) have asked this: what if the performance and the song, just the song itself, were just so bad it didn’t deserve a place in the final? But Trijntje’s performance was bad. What happened to that charismatic and confident woman who sang quite well at the Voice of Holland? She looked and acted like she was scared for some reason. Her singing wasn’t strong either. The oufit she wore on Tuesday was… Read more »
Block voting? Quite unlikely. Russia is in while Belarus is out, Belgium is in – Netherlands is out… The jump suit? Don’t think so. Elhaida’s outfit was just as bad, yet she got into the final. –The veil? Don’t think so either. I got more distressed by Elhaida’s tormented face than by Trijntje’s veil. And I wasn’t the only one. As an European jurnalist said while Elhaida sang: “Being alive seems to be very painful” 🙂 Joke aside, Elhaida was obviously in pain while delivering her song and this is serious red alert for a singer. –Vocals? Regardless of what… Read more »
Interesting to first blame the eastern countries for bloc voting, then in the next breath claim that Belgium didn’t give enough points! Eeh…:/
Hmm…stinks of bad losers here!
The song was nothing but repetitive, Trinjtjes performance was static, and that dress, ladies and gentlemen…I currently have nightmares about it…
No…get yourselves together and come back in 2016 with a fab song like last year.
I love how the Dutch complain about bloc voting yet hinted about Belgium’s supposed ‘loyalty’ to them. My little brother who has no interest in Eurovision watched The Netherlands’ performance and agreed it was repetitive. That veil-like object covering her eyes destroyed the atmosphere of the song – it’s supposed to be a nice song you sway along with, not one where you turn up looking like you’re at a funeral.
hahahah c’mon lets face that the song is so repetitive and boring, and netherlands is not a country that tend to go to the final except las 2 years, doesn’t matter how good artist trijntje is is a SONG CONTEST, and it definetly was not final material
The Netherlands had an average song, bad camera work and a terrible outfit. Her voice though was flawless and maybe it was even the best voice of the night. If she would’ve qualified it would’ve been like 10th place or something. The act never had a winning potential like the acts of Anouk or The Common Linnets did have. So totally no surprise when Trijntje didn’t make it. What I don’t understand is Albania qualifying! That was so flat!!!! Come on people, if that is the standard of Eurovision… The Netherlands are on the rise, though. The last three years… Read more »
Elhaida may have been off-pitch in many places during the performance, but in no way did she miss the high notes. In fact, that crescendo to the high note was exactly where she got back on track. No to mention the song itself is way more fun and uplifting that the dutch entry.
The comparisons are definitely showing what sore losers Dutch media outlets are…
I agree with Robyn. That first shot was just way too long and, to be honest, a bit creepy. I think that the main problem of Traincha’s song is that it sounds uplifting whereas the lyrics are the opposite. The director went for the sad staging, which kept Traincha from engaging with the audience. There was literally nothing happening on stage, apart from a focus on the parachute jumpsuit: so many missed opportunities. Even though the performance was one of the worst, vocally she was quite simply the best of the evening. There was not one note that was out… Read more »
TBH she was unfortunately not good at all live… which was a major let down. Elhaida slayed that high note so that is absolutely ridiculous.
Dutch drama queens)) Some are went frenzy and started spitting poison around blaming all of the eastern countries demanding disqualification etc. Not that they weren’t doing that before the semifinal.. Some sound openly like fascists. We talking about gay ESC fans here)) Funny isn’t? It is disgusting. (my impression from reading some of the comments on songfestivalweblog.nl) Anyway, those are just (bitter) fans, but when suchlike happens on the TV… It becomes really disturbing. You should listen how Dutch presenters were announcing some of the entries during the first semifinal. I don’t want to name those but they are literally… Read more »
Though her song was definitely one of my favourites prior to the semi (yes, it was in my top 5!), after watching the rehearsals earlier this week, I was disappointed. The staging didn’t synch with the song, she was mainly static (in a song about walking along, go figure), and the camera shots were strange or frightening (that close up of her eyes…what’s that all about??). Remember, people, it’s not just about the song or voice…it’s the WHOLE package. People are equally focused on your appearance and staging, and this is where she lost out to others: Belgium, Russia and… Read more »