The Netherlands had a Eurovision revival during the past 2 years, starting by qualification of Anouk’s ‘Birds’ in 2013, and by the huge success of the Common Linnets last year, both inside and outside the contest.
This year they kept the line of choosing a well known artists internally and went with Trijntje Oosterhuis. She has a long career in the Netherlands, that started with the group Total Touch and they’re semi-European hit ‘Somebody Else’s Lover‘, and continued with a long solo career for the past 15 years.
Trijntje is no doubt a good singer, she is a coach on the Dutch version of ‘The Voice’, and can definitely pull a liver performance. However, I am afraid that in the context of Europe, where she is not a known singer like in the Netherlands, she won’t be able to appeal to a big audience, as she seems quite ordinary and old, and the reality in Eurovision today is that you need a young appearance to succeed.
Despite being co-written by former Eurovision participant Anouk, it also doesn’t help that the song is very dated, and sounds like a reject from a Jordin Sparks album from 6 years ago, and that’s being generous. I hope that a new version will eventually come out, which will try to give the song a better production that its current state.
Unfortunately for the Netherlands, I think they will not be able to recreate the success they have experienced in the past 2 years, and deservedly so, as this is quite a weak effort.
Eurovision Israel 