Thirty-nine countries are competing with the aim to lift the trophy in Malmö. The sixteenth country to be introduced is The Netherlands that won four editions of the Eurovision Song Contest. This year Anouk will carry the Dutch flag in Sweden.

Basic information

Performer: Anouk
Song: Birds
Language: English
Music: Tore Johansson, Martin Gjerstad
Lyrics: Anouk Teeuwe

The song

This year’s Dutch entry is a particular slow song. Anouk sings about a person who is isolated and is apart from love.

isolated from the outside
clouds have taken all the light
I have no control
it seems my thoughts wonder all of the time
when I try to live life without you

birds falling down the rooftops
out of the sky like raindrops
no air, no pride
birds

if being myself is what I do wrong
than I would rather not be right
hopes turned into fear
and with my one wing I can’t fly with sunrise
embrace my dreams tight
and that’s why

birds falling down the rooftops
out of the sky like raindrops
no air, no pride
birds

The performer

Anouk Teeuwe, professionally better known as Anouk, is a Dutch singer. Anouk is regarded as the most popular female rock singer in the Netherlands. After being discovered by Golden Earring frontman Barry Hay, she had her breakthrough in 1997 with the single Nobody’s wife. From then onwards, Anouk had numerous hit singles in the Dutch and Belgian charts, such as R u kiddin’ me, Michel, Girl, Lost, One word, I don’t wanna hurt, Modern world, Three days in a row and Woman.

The songwriters

Tore Johansson is a Swedish record producer, composer and musician based in Malmö. Johansson has gained particular international recognition through his production work with The Cardigans and Franz Ferdinand, but has also worked with various recording artists. In the past years Martin Gjerstad collaborated with Tore Johansson and Anouk. Gjerstad worked on the song Three days in a row which is the first official single of Anouk’s sixth album For bitter or worse. Anouk also is involved in the creation of the song as she penned the lyrics of her entry.

The national selection

Anouk was internally selected by the Dutch broadcaster Tros. Anouk was one of the first entrants to be confirmed for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Netherlands took part in the very first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and the country had one of the most remarkable starts in the competition. Between 1957 and 1969, the country could win the contest no less than three times, but was placed in the second half of the scoreboard on every other occasion during those years. In 1975, they won again and they have been waiting for their fifth victory since. The last top ten result in a final to date came in 1999 and the country has not even qualified for the final the last seven times.

Statistics

This will be the Dutch 54th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. For the 34th time the country is represented by a female solo singer. For the twelfth in thirteen times since the abolishment of the language rule in 1999, the Dutch entry will be performed entirely in English.

Dutch vote in Eurovision

France & The Netherlands exchanged the most votes while since 2004 when the semi-final was introduced The Netherlands gave most points to Turkey while the Dutch received most points from Belgium.

The betting odds

According to oddschecker.com, The Netherlands is currently standing at number 3 to win the Eurovision Song Contest, while it also looks favourable for the country to qualify as it is the fourth favourite to qualify from semi-final one.

We wensen Nederland en Anouk veel geluk en een goed resultaat in Malmö!

Videos

Preview clip

Nobody’s wife

Lost

Tomorrow another country will be introduced (hint – no more reference to the military!)

Have your say

You can rate the Dutch entry by voting in our poll

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You can view previous parts of this series by clicking here