The Netherlands: Waylon reacts to final placing and Israel’s Eurovision 2018 victory

by Jessica Weaver 4,968 views

Undeserved placing but possible return: The Dutch representative at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, Waylon, has reacted to his placing at the Grand Final of Saturday’s competition, as well as his thoughts on the winning entry of the contest.

It was a night filled with an intense yet exciting voting procedure at the Altice Arena in Lisbon last night, which saw Israel becoming the eventual winner of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest with Netta and her entry Toy.

The Netherlands sent returning artist – Waylon – to the competition, who last participated at the contest in 2014 alongside The Common Linnets, bringing the nation a successful 2nd place with the singer hoping to bring similar success back to the Netherlands for 2018.

Waylon reacts to the results

Whilst the Netherlands received 13th position from the jury vote, the televote ranked the country in 19th place, bringing the combined position to 18th. Reacting to the results, Waylon commented that he believed his place was “not deserved, but [he] did not want to do anything else than [he] did”.

Waylon added:

We did not bet on the eighteenth place and also did not hope for the eighteenth place, but that’s what we got. I am very proud of what we have done.

Waylon assured The Telegraaf to not be disappointed with the results, revealing:

Of course you want to win, because you want a party. You finally want to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to the Netherlands again.

Asked whether he would participate in the competition again, Waylon said “Absolutely!”, adding that he is stubborn enough to return in the future.

When asked about his thoughts on the winner of the competition, he revealed that Toy from Israel was a justified winner “if you like that song festival craziness we always talk about”. Waylon added:

It does not bring much innovation to Eurovision. That’s too bad.

Israel become the 63rd winner of the Eurovision Song Contest last night with Netta and her entry Toy, finishing 3rd in the jury vote but winning the public televote. Combined, Israel received a total of 529 points, the fewest received since the introduction of the new voting method in 2016.