I’m sure to anyone non-European, this is completely foreign, but every year, around this time of year every European country goes Eurovision crazy. The biggest Song Contest has been around for many years and has launched the careers of Abba and Celine Dion.
In the early years of the contest, it was required that all countries would be singing in their own language. This was pretty unfair, because certain European languages just sound beautiful. It doesn’t really matter what they sing about, when a song is in French, Spanish or Italian, it just has an appeal to it that the Dutch, for instance, could probably never convey in their language.
In order to make songs appealing, a Song Contest formula started to be applied to songs. In a way you could call it the KISS-principle: Keep It Stupid Simple. Lyrics would get stripped, adlibs would be added and there would just be a lot of “La La La” or easy words anyone could catch on to.
Obviously, having an audience of millions, also meant that any singer would want to showcase their vocal skills, so dramatic ballads were popular. So, on one hand you had the power ballads and on the other, you had cheesy pop songs. This became Eurovision’s downfall for a while, and then things went from bad to worse.
Artists were so desperate to stand out in between the rest of the contesters, that the acts just got crazier. Different genres were accepted, the quality of music dropped and countries, who had won many times before, started to withdraw from seriously competing in the contest altogether.
In recent years, the Eurovision Song Contest is restoring its reputation. The quality of music is improving each year again and many countries are beginning to see it as a way of sending some of their best, instead of unknown, talent to the contest. The Eurovision is also launching major hit singles again, across Europe and even beyond.
All songs for the first competition round of this year’s Song Contest have just been presented and for the Netherlands, it’s Douwe Bob with his country song, “Slow Down”. The Netherlands has had the most success with another country song, a few years ago, The Common Linnets, who are now enjoying international success. Me, being Dutch, am always critical of the song we send it, but I actually think this one’s really nice and catchy.
Douwe Bob is no stranger to competitions. He was discovered when he participated in “The Best Singer-Songwriter of The Netherlands”; the talent show that was started to be a serious alternative to talent getting ´manufactured´ on talent shows like Idol and The Voice.
The country is eager to repeat the success of the Common Linnets and Anouk, but, of course, they are not alone. I’ve heard many great songs for this year and am really surprised at the level of quality that was send it. It really looks like every country is taking the competition more seriously than the year before.
As much as you would want to ignore this contest, it’s still something that intrigues and the craziness around it, just pulls you in. The finals of the contest will be held in Stockholm in May
