:: Eurovision 24 :: Oslo 2010

Song: De Toppers Singer: Shine Composer: TBC ______________________________________ The band The Toppers with the song “Shine” will represent The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The Toppers already were choosen from the national broadcaster of the country internally. On the 1st February, the song "Shine" was choosen. This year the country will participate in the second semi-final. -

Dutch broadcaster NOS announced that the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow will be their very last participation. From 2010, they will no longer send a participant or broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest. The broadcaster taking over is TROS. They will participate for at least three years, starting in 2010. The Netherlands have been taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest since the first edition in 1956. Despite four victories between 1957 and 1975, the country was not very succesful in recent years and has not finished in the top ten of a final since 1999 despite qualifying from the semi final for the only time in 2004. Last year, Hind finished 13th in the first semi final with Your heart belongs to me. News Source: ESC Today NL. -

It has been announced on the official of Dutch broadcaster NOS that Jeroen van der Boom will be the new Topper and take the place of Gerard Joling. Gerard Joling left the trio on 10th November and it was rumoured that NOS may need to find some other group to represent the country. Jeroen van der Boom was chosen to fill in his place. Gordon and Rene Froger seem thrilled with the addition of the particular new member: " Jeroen has an amazing voice and we're convinced that he will do a great job !" they stated.

Dutch broadcaster NOS just confirmed that "De Toppers" (Gerard Joling, Gordon and Rene Froger) will represent The Netherlands at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. It's yet to be decided what song they will sing.

The Danes got it for free last Saturday night but the Irish people had to pay three times as much as the Brits for the same pleasure of voting in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. For voting in the Eurovision Song Contest costed the Irish Public 60c a time to support their favourite acts in last Saturday night's final. Viewers in the United Kingdom had to pay two-thirds what it costs in different countries to phone or text in a vote for the contest. Voters in countries like Iceland had to pay 87c a time for the privilege of voting. Viewers in Spain got what was Europe's highest bill, €1.86 per call, and the Greeks paid as much as €1.19 a time voting. Last Tuesday the European Consumer Centre's Iceland office released a survey of voting costs in selected Eurovision nations to raise awareness about the cost of public voting in TV Shows. Some of the other countries voting costs (In Euro): Ireland: 60c a time Belgium: 50c Czech Republic: 36c The Netherlands: 35c United...

156 Greece 139 Armenia 135 Russia 106 Norway 104 Israel 096 Azerbaijan 094 Romania 079 Finland 072 Bosnia & Herzegovina 042 Poland 036 Slovenia 036 Moldova 027 The Netherlands 023 Montenegro 022 Andorra 022 Ireland 016 Belgium 008 Estonia 005 San Marino

Watch the show live here . Just looking around in the Arena before the show starts, it seems only half full. Show starts, two girls singing the Te Deum song, then a choir sing and a band is playing jazz music, "Congratulations" and "Waterloo" and "Volare". Couples painted in blue and red are dancing. Presenters appear. there is a very small audience. there are showing the countries that are singing tonight. MONTENEGRO: Great Presentation. Looks very confident on stage. Everything went smoothly, just missed a few camera shots, but a great start. Great reaction from the audience. ISRAEL: Big reaction when he starts. Crowd really love this. He starts in Hebrew and then in English. Another great reaction from the audience. ESTONIA: Muted response and a bit of booing for Estonia before they start. This better not go through. More booing at the end. MOLDOVA: Nice response from the crowd, but this is a no from me. SAN MARINO: This country makes their debut. Ni...

Dutch broadcaster NOS confirmed that The Netherlands will be participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. NOS director Gerard Dielessen confirmed it to Dutch press this morning in Belgrade. [ Source ]

After three days of rehearsals, it seems the biggest problem being encountered in Belgrade is that the stage is a little too smooth. After the panic in 2005 when the glass topped stage cracked and in 2006 when one of the large mechanical step features on the stage broke and smashed to the floor, it seems that RTS and those responsible for preparing the setting for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest are doing well. The biggest problem so far appears to be that the smooth surface of the stage is causing balance problems for some of the singers and dancers. Both Hind from the Netherlands and Charlotte Perrelli from Sweden have said that they have struggled to avoid slipping on the surface, which is of course brand new for the show. Other than that, the stage has been roundly applauded for it's style, sophistication and ability to change its look and feel for all the songs. Additional features such as the pyrotechnics and of course the compusory wind machine are being used by many a...

The Dutch 2008 Eurovision entry was presented in a special edition of the popular show "Thank God It's Friday" on March 7th, after the song had been chosen by Hind and her management team and agreed with NOS. Hind will sing "Your Heart Belongs To Me" in Belgrade.

Netherlands and Austria, will participate in the 2008 contest depite rumours of withdrawal. NOS boss Gerard Dielessen recently confirmed to Eurovision site Belgovision.com that the Netherlands will never withdraw from the Eurovision, despite recent disappointing results culminating in another failure to qualify from the semi final by Edsilia Rombley in Helsinki. Austrian broadcaster ORF have also confirmed that Austria will be present in Belgrade, despite a 27th place in the 2007 semi final with Eric Papilaya. After selecting their participant internally in 2007, they are reviewing the different possibilities for choosing their song in 2008. Rumours also exist over a possible Andorran withdrawal, however the Andorran head of delegation recently said that the contest was "too important to promote Andorran music", so at the time it seems unlikely that they will leave either.

A Dutch politican has put forward an idea for a brand new, Eurovision-style song contest for member countries of the European Union. Toine Manders, a member of the European parliament for the Netherlands, has suggested a new show comprising only the member states of the European Union. The aim of the EU contest would be to increase the sense of belonging for each country, but would promote individuality through an official language rule, as the Eurovision Song Contest did for many of its years. Former participant for the Netherlands, Sandra Reemer (1972, 1976 and 1979) has already expressed her support for the plan, as has prominent journalist Henk Krol. The new format would address several issues raised in recent editions of the Eurovision Song Contest, such as neighbourly voting. Safeguards would be put in place under Manders' suggestions, including a split between televotes and a jury vote to determine the winner. Several media companies are said to have already shown interest i...

Irish broadcaster, RTE, will review the country's position in the Eurovision Song Contest after finishing in last place for the first time in their history on Saturday night. An RTE spokeswoman confirmed to newspaper, The Irish Examiner yesterday. “We will definitely be having a sit-down and looking at our geographical position and going through the whole process...Without doubt that’s going to happen. It was a long night.” Lead singer of Irish representative, Dervish, Cathy Jordan is quoted as saying “We were really proud of them. They performed really well on the night and we were happy with the song but it just wasn’t our night...I enjoyed the experience. The performance felt really good and the feedback from home was great but it’s not what the masses, particularly in eastern Europe, want to hear.” Ireland hold the record for the most victories in the Eurovision Song Contest, having taken the crown seven times. Johnny Logan remains the only singer to win the competition twice a...

As the media in western Europe still remain in shock, The 2007 Semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest has produced one major story. All ten qualifiers are from the East and Central Europe. Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Slovenia are all from ex-Yugoslavia. Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Latvia are all former Soviet Union states. Turkey are the most South-Eastern outpost and Hungary and Bulgaria are to the East. Countries tipped to do well such as Switzerland, Cyprus, Malta, Norway, Denmark, Andorra and Netherlands along with Portugal, Iceland and Belgium once again miss out. Whether it is political voting taking a stronger hand than ever remains to be seen until the voting numbers are announced. The following is an extract from the doteurovision.com website and I think it tells a lot of what everyone else is thinking: What transpired last night was the end of the Eurovision as we know it. Never one to jump readily onto the death of the Contest bandwagon, in the past I have always thought it ...