Hi Robert, let’s start with all the hype beforehand: have you ever experienced such an eventful introduction to entering the Netherlands?
No, I don’t think there was much thought through. The annoying thing is that it happens from something negative. Unfortunately, we’ve seen that before, like with Joan Franca. It’s a very cheerful Euro-singing game, and it’s a shame that it stirs up so many negative vibes. This is by far the most discussed Dutch entry of the past ten years.
Why exactly?
I found and found Burning daylight A beautiful song, but also a tough one out loud. When they first wanted to perform it, things went wrong. According to Mia and Dion, this was due to the monitor: if it wasn’t set correctly, you’d hear yourself on echo and then automatically start singing out of tune.
I immediately thought so, because often this is the explanation when good professional singers sing out of tune. But when it happened again, it was no longer an accident. That chorus in particular, with that beautiful descending scale, turns out to be quite challenging. Then a very good producer made adjustments and made the whole song a tone and a half. Now their voices touch each other better.
Are the problems over now?
“I hope so, because I hate what happened to her. But it’s going to be very difficult, because in addition to the difficulty of the song, there’s also that tension that the whole country pours on them. And dealing with your nerves is the most important thing for a good entry.”
“I don’t know if they can handle that. In the documentary Mia and Dionne, Eurovision Song Contest assignment which was shown on Sunday, they said they were very touched by all the criticism. It won’t bother you.
Who is your favorite in this Eurovision Song Contest?
We had a very nice listening session in the editorial office and our impression was that the songs had a lot of suffering. It was very gloomy and dark.
My favorite is the Spanish entry: EAEA From Blanca Paloma. This is a typical earworm. It is a kind of flamenco pop. You quickly think of Rosalía, but this is still a bit of a classic. I’ve played it ten times already and I can also listen to it after the Eurovision Song Contest.
Finland has a very funny song, Cha cha cha. It’s kind of a mix Gangnam style and Rammstein. This is a good chance, they are second only to Sweden in the “bookies”. It’s a song that everyone will sing with very strange surprises. I think he can win. They enter the semi-final on Tuesday right after the Netherlands, and Spain in the other semi-final.
Spotify released its most-streamed songs list on Monday, and Holland took the fifth spot. To be honest, Holland really has one of the best songs, melodic with good lyrics. Together with Spain and Finland, these are the top three hits.
Finally, there is a new scoring system. What can you say about that?
What the organization wants to achieve is that countries cannot award each other a place in the final. Previously, in the semi-finals, in addition to the TVs, the professional jury of each country could vote and award friendly countries a lot of points.
Now only televised people can vote in the semi-finals, not for their country’s entry. The professional jury can vote again in the final. We’ll see if that really makes it any fairer.
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