Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

  Now as the Netherlands has withdrawn from Eurovision song contest at least in 2026, let's have a look of some Dutch favorites of mine over the year. 't is OK seems to be totally forgotten but I loved it to bits as kid.  And I have very fond memories of talks with two of these artists: Ilse and Edsilia. Enjoy! 2014 The Common Linnets - Calm after the storm (2nd) 1980 Maggie MacNeal - Amsterdam (5th) 2022 S10 - De diepte (11th) 2016 Douwe Bob - Slow down (11th) 2019 Duncan Laurence -  Arcade (1st) 1990 Maywood - Ik wil alles met je delen (15th) 1993 Ruth Jacott - Vrede (6th) 1978 Harmony - 't is OK (13th) 1998 Edsilia Rombley - Hemel en aarde (4th) There would have been quite a few to pick up as well but these sounded the ones at this time and space.  Special mentions go to: 1988 Gerard Joling - Shangri-La (9th) 1987 Marcha - Rechtop in de wind (5th) 1979 Xandra - Colorado (12th) 1992 Humphrey Campbell - Wijs me de weg (9th) 1984 Maribelle - Ik hou van jou (13th)

The Eurovision song contest 2022 has begun in Turin this morning with the first rehearsals of Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, The Netherlands and Moldova. And with rehearsals come problems as everything isn't (yet) perfect despite stand-in rehearsals and all that, which is very normal and adjustable. Apparently The Netherlands weren't happy with their stand-in for example but the bigger problem is the malfunction of the sun on stage that may have caused Lithuania to alter their staging. It looks like there's a problem with its motor that causes problems with the LED wall as the sun doesn't rotate all the way as it  should and it may not be fixable.... We'll see. Ukraine has had different kind of problems as they have had to change their staging several times as Ebu has considered their ideas too political until they have come to an agreement what is acceptable and suitable for Eurovision. And yes, the Green room is Green. There ...

Once again Blogilkar's home jury has sat through the songs and videos and voted from 1 to 10. This year the jury consisted of pre-teens, 20somethings, 30somethngs, 40somethings and 50somethings. Even a dog participated and went nuts for Romania but was not allowed to vote. Most of the jury members had not heard any of the songs beforehand, some not even the Finnish one.And yes, this jury didn't care for betting odds, fan favorites or wanks but only their own taste and first impression! In the end it was a very close run and as many favorites had very divided opinions and votes those that were liked a lot or at least fairly well ended up on top instead of The Netherlands and Portugal (and Iceland and Italy, too) that may have scored most tens and nines. And UK and Norway had to be cut into pieces to find a minor preference. Sharing the same number of 10s, 9s and 8s it was down to 7s in favor of UK for the win! 1. UNITED KINGDOM - SAM RYDER - SPACE MAN (Average score 7,72) Excell...

The Netherlands announced S10 as their entrant for Eurovision song contest already in December last year ( read more here ) and today finally her song is out. And guess what? It's in Dutch! The first semi-final is shaping up like old school Eurovision with most countries singing in their own language.  S10's song is titled De diepte and it's definitely a stand out in many ways. How it will feature in Turin 2022 is a another story but the Dutch should be proud.  

The Netherlands became the fourth country to reveal their artist for the 2022 Eurovision song contest in Turin. Internally selected S10 will be singing in Dutch (Hurray!) but her song will be revealed later. S10 (pronounced "es tien") aka Stien van Hollander (21) got her first record deal at the age of 17, and since released two albums and several EPs. Millions of streams and an award winning album later the singer-rapper is  off to Turin for the Netherlands. Her lyrics often deal with mental issues and she spent six months in psychiatric clinic at the age of 14 and had suicidal thoughts. These days her mental health in uder control but she says she's still not quite there yet to call it a thing from the past. Listen her biggest hit so far, Adem je in below: