NPO Radio in The Netherlands today reports that the entry representing the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has already been determined by the director of broadcaster AVROTROS.
The broadcaster had previously confirmed that the entry will be determined internally once more for this year’s host country. It is also reported that the director is convinced that it is possible with the selected entry that The Netherlands could win once more.
Many Dutch artists have been rumoured to be the selected entry, however widely speculated artists including Davina and Floor Jansen have already confirmed they are not in the running.
It is not yet known when the entry for The Netherlands will be released.
This will be The Netherlands’ 8th consecutive internal selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2013, The Netherlands opted to select “Birds” by Anouk internally following a string of bad results. Anouk became the first Dutch artist to qualify to the final since 2004, marking a changed attitude from the country towards the contest. Since going internal, The Netherlands have only failed to qualify once, doing so in 2015 with “Walk Along” by Trijntje Oosterhuis.
In 2019, The Netherlands were represented by Duncan Laurence with the song “Arcade”. The song became the 4th consecutive entry from The Netherlands to advance to the final and eventually managed to win the entire contest. This was their first win since “Ding a Dong” by Teach Inn in 1975, and as a result the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the city of Rotterdam. This is the first time the contest has been held in The Netherlands since The Hague took on hosting duties in 1980, following reigning champions Israel choosing to withdraw from the contest.
Source: ESC Bubble
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”.