AVROTROS, the Dutch national broadcaster, has confirmed that they will use an internal selction to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Rotterdam.
Famke Kroese, Communications Advisor for AVROTROS, confirmed to ESCXtra that they would select the Dutch entry for Rotterdam internally. This will be the first host entry of the 21st century to be completely internally selected. The last host entry to be internally selected was Eden with “Happy Birthday” who represented Israel in the 1999 contest in Jerusalem. All other host countries since then have had at least their entry or their artist chosen through a national selection.
The Netherlands have internally selected all of their Eurovision entries since 2013. Anouk placed eighth in the final in 2013 with “Birds”, breaking an eight year non-qualification streak. Since then, the Netherlands have only failed to qualify for the final in 2015. Previously, Nationaal Songfestival was used to select Dutch Eurovision entries.
Duncan Laurence was selected to represent the Netherlands in Tel Aviv with the song “Arcade”. He won the final with 498 points, giving the Netherlands their fifth Eurovision win and their first since 1975. Duncan’s victory also sees Eurovision returning to the Netherlands for the first time since 1980.
Source: ESCXtra
The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Netherlands debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and has gone on to compete in all bar four contests. To date the Netherlands has won the contest on five occasions; 1957, 1959, 1969, 1975 and most recently 2019. Prior to Duncan Laurence’s victory in Tel Aviv, the Netherlands had been waiting 44 years for their next victory. Duncan Laurence won the contest in Israel with the song “Arcade”.
