In 2007, Edsilia Rombley will take to the stage for the Netherlands for the second time at the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be nine years since her first attempt to capture the Eurovision Crown, when she finished in fourth place behind Dana International of Israel, Imaani of the United Kingdom and Chiara from Malta in Birmingham, UK.
Edsilia Rombley was born in Amsterdam in 1978, to Aruban parents. She found instant fame after winning the Dutch equivalent of Stars In Their Eyes, the Soundmix Show, in '96. Millions of voters chose her for her interpretation of Oleta Adams' I just had to hear your voice.A year later, Edsilia won the European Soundmix Show with the same song, shortly afterwards leaving the group Dignity (with which she had a minor hit with Talk to me at the same time she won the European Soundmix Show) to pursue a solo career. Later, from the centre of the Ajax pitch, she sang Tina Turner's Simply the best before an audience of 40,000 people.
In 1998, she won the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival with Hemel en aarde, which she took to 4th place in Birmingham in that year's Eurovision Song Contest.
Since then, she's been touring around the Netherlands, always singing live – she often emphasises how much better she finds singing live than miming. She released an r'n'b/soul album in 2002, called Face to face, with songs in English on. The album also included the minor hit I'll be that someone, which was a duet with popular Dutch singer Trijntje Oosterhuis.
In 2003, Edsilia was part of the Wonderwoman tours around the Netherlands, where famous female singers would sing live for an audience. Edsilia got great reviews from the press and the critics for her part in this project, once again showing her great talent at performing live.
Her most recent release has been the song Dan ben ik von jou, which was releasedon May 26th 2006. The song became a hit in the Netherlands without hitting the top of the national music charts.
In 2007, Edsilia will be looking to better her 4th place from 1998 in Helsinki, by singing a song of her choice, which will be announced on the 11th February. She had previously stated that she would never return to the competion, but changed her mind to appease dutch Eurovision fan and local celebrity, Paul de Leeuw. He and a colleague proposed Edsilia to the company and they agreed that she held the most likely chance of returning the Netherlands to the Eurovision Song Contest final three years after their last appearance there.
