As esctoday.com published last night, Mary Amora and the three-girl group Zooom won the first preselection for the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival 2003. Chief Editor Sietse Bakker and photographer Danny Mekic' were present before, during and after the programme. In this article we give you an in-depth view on the first Dutch preselection, which has already been critisized by the audience ánd the participants themselves!
Snow, snow, snow� everywhere all over the place. The Dutch railway company had serious trouble with the trains and so we had. It was just five minutes before a press instruction that we came in. We had to remain seated during the whole programme and flashlight was forbidden. No problem for us, as you can see in the photo gallery.
The event took place (just as the upcoming three preselections) at Hart van Holland, where there was space for around 200 people. A small venue for a big event, which has totally been blasted away by a bigger event; the fourth Idols selection. The programme director tried to warm up the audience, which particulairy existed on press and relatives of the performers.
The first performer, Sonny's Inc, received many negative critics from the jury on his song Mamboleo. Afterwards he told esctoday.com: “I had the feeling they wanted to imitate Idols, which is really cheap! We are professional artists selected by the NOS to perform here”. On the question if he wants to participate again he said: “In my opinion this is a great event and maybe I will participate again, I'll just wait and see what comes on my path”.
The British Aletia Bourne performing Wanna be the one received a comment from the jury the chorus was too repeating. Martin Frankena, who performed the Dutch song Zoeken in de lucht, got a comment from jury member and former Eurovision participant Corry Brokken: “The lyrics are very clichè”. Host Harm Edens immediately started to sing Dinge Dong, to proove that a winning Eurovision song does not need lyrics with a story line.
Astrit, performing Together Forever in a green uniform. The jury compared her clothes with the uniform of the Dutch airline Transavia. No comment on the song?
Jerique Allan performed All bout love. According to jury member Nance “a great song for the Dutch charts, but not for the Eurovision Song Contest”.
Mary Amora, the sixth participant of the evening, won this first preselection with a huge majority of the votes. During the break, before the voting, she told us she had a good feeling about it. After it appeared she won she came to us with tears in her eyes. “I can't believe this, almost half of the people voted for me… this is unbelievable”, was her comment. In the meantime she got a comment from the jury that the backings were placed wrong on stage, although this was an idea of the producer of the show!
The guys from Blauwdruk ended up last. They told us: “We had a great time and indeed, we were nervous. When I had to come up I almost forget my own song”. Corry Brokken had the comment that the song had bad rimes, on which lead singer Barry told us that “a song does not have to rime”.
The three-girl group Zooom, performing Boogie, was speechless after the show. They never thought they would win, although they were the second choice of the audience (Mary Amora was selected by the jury ánd the audience, so the second choice of the audience was the second winner). A journalist told us after the show: “If we want to end up among the first ten in Riga, we have to send Zooom to Riga”.
After all, the programme has already been critisized a lot by press and audience. Almost all performers were disappointed in the Idols-imitation of the jury and Eurovision fans were disappointed about the level of the songs, as well as the quality of the show. “The whole show was amature work. Just eight songs in Ahoy would be better for next year”. In the meantime it has been made public that Idols had three times more viewers than the preselection of the Nationaal Songfestival. Enough to do for the NOS, TROS and Ivo Niehe Productions before next week…
