Seventeen former Eurovision Song Contest participants look back on their participation – and update us – VARA guide

Seventeen former Eurovision Song Contest participants gathered in Radio Kootwijk for a group photo and photographer Frank Ruiter captured this special reunion.

I sang five songs in the national final. It was certain that I would participate, but the audience decided which song I would perform with Eurovision Song Contest went. Afterwards I understand why they chose that song: it was a song in six-eighth time. The hit I made two years before this Eurovision Song Contestperformance, ‘The Clown’, was also in six-eighth time. These songs are recognizable and sing-along for the audience.

The bookmakers ranked this song at number six. I think the fact that I came fourteenth was mainly due to technology. The sound was so bad, everyone complained about it. During the dress rehearsal I stopped singing halfway through, which was absolutely not allowed. I said: ‘Sorry, but this is not possible!’ I received applause from the audience, because they all agreed with me. But what I didn’t know at the time was that the jury was watching. And I had to deal with a director who got very angry with me because I had quit. In the final TV recording he took revenge on me.

Look, it Eurovision Song Contest is not just about the song, but also about the TV registration, which was deliberately very bare here. Because of that argument. The orchestra sat in the dark and the musician sat at the back of the screen. I can’t help but feel that that had an influence on the final score. I have always continued to sing this song, then I introduce it with the joke: I came, I saw, and I could go again.

Read more about the stories of former participants in VARA guide 18: Linda Wagenmakers, Michelle, Ronnie Tober, Maxine & Franklin Brown, Marga Bult, Justine Pelmelay, Thérèse Steinmetz, Greetje Kauffeld, Saskia & Serge, Bill van Dijk, Willeke Alberti, Stella and Bianca Maessen and Esther Hart.

Read more in VARA guide 18, page 18. For sale in stores from April 30, 2024.