According to Emmely de Wit, presenter at NPO Radio 2, there is a shift in the type of songs that are submitted and end up high. “It’s more camp and more party,” says De Wit to Editie NL. “I like that it’s not so heavy anymore.”
‘Nice bludger’
That shift was already somewhat visible last year. “Käärijä (Finland entry ed.) – which almost won last year and perhaps should have won – was a nice blower,” De Wit explains. “Just cozy and camp. As far as I’m concerned, it’s exactly what the Eurovision Song Contest should be.”
Entries from major contenders this year, such as Croatia and Ukraine and our own Joost Klein, are characterized by being up-tempo. But Finland also stands out for its use of musical influences from the 90s. “Finland’s entry, Windows95man, is clearly a nod to the nineties,” says De Wit. “And Joost Klein of course has DJ Paul and that awful one hardstyle and gabberish influences in his record.”
’90s revival’
But also apart from the Eurovision Song Contest, there is ‘a kind of 90s revival’ going on, says the radio presenter. “I think right now there are just a lot of producers and bands that grew up in that time,” says De Wit. “Either with music from their parents from the nineties, or that they were young themselves at the time and were incredibly influenced because that was music from their youth.”
De Wit himself can also talk about it. “I absolutely love the nineties and have a section ’90 seconds for the nineties’ because I like it so much. I’m 37, so I come from that era and I applaud it wholeheartedly.”
Sunny feeling
“Maybe it is just something we need now,” the radio maker concludes. “That it has been a fairly carefree decade with a lot of fun and a lot of ‘party hits’, and that we want to go back in time a bit. Back to that nice and sunny feeling: when everything was still possible and everything was open, when it was was not so heavy, not so ‘autumn’.”
Tags: Joost Klein inspired #90s Eurovision Song Contest RTL News
