Earlier this afternoon, esctoday.com attended the press conference in Amsterdam, where Dutch broadcaster NOS announced its formula and paricipants for the Nationaal Songfestival 2006. The press conference, which attracted more press than usual, was hosted by Paul de Leeuw, host of the Dutch selection in 2006.
The format
Three acts will sing three songs each, two from their own collection of songs, one from an open selection. Songs can be submitted to NOS until 16th January, 10:00 CET. The writer(s)/composer(s) should be Dutch or should have a clear link with the Netherlands. For each selected song, EUR 2500,- is available. During the show on 12th March, which will take place in the Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam, a jury consisting of 10 people (5 of them chosen by music organisation Conamus) will select the best song of each participant. Jury head Cornald Maas will not have voting rights. In a superfinal, the winner will be decided by 100% televoting and SMS.
The selected songs will be made public on 15th February.
The participants
As earlier announced on esctoday.com, Behave, Maud and Treble will compete against eachother during the Dutch selection for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. You can find short biographies about all participants here. Maud was the first participant selected internally this year: “When NOS invited me to participate, the other two names were yet unknown. Aa they unveiled their plans, I became more and more enthousiastic”, Maud said. Niña and Djem of Treble told us why their third colleague Caroline wasn't present: “She is celebrating her birthday in Prague, so we took a paper version of Caroline”, they said, carrying their 'paper colleague' around during and after the press conference.
The group Behave is relatively unknown, compared to the other paricipants. They thank a great deal of their success to their manager, the 19-year old Stacey Rookhuizen. When she was 16 years old, she started her own record label to give new bands a chance to become successful. “When the guys were asked to participate, only a few weeks ago, they first didn't really knew what it was all about. But at the end, they felt honoured and said yes!”, Stacey said.
Television
During the press conference, NOS also revealed its plans for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Cornald Maas will commentate the semifinal on 18th May, right after the semifinal Paul de Leeuw will present a review show. During the final on 20th May, Cornald Maas will commentate as well, but now together with Paul de Leeuw, who will be 2300 kilometers from Athens (in Weesp, the Netherlands). During the interval act, a live link with the studio will be provided for the Dutch viewers.
In the week prior to 12th March, three 30-minute programmes are being programmed to focuss on the three participants. Asking about international promotion, NOS head Gerard Dielessen said that decisions are still to be made in co-operation with the managers and record companies of the participating artists.
