Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

Following Trijntje Oosterhuis' failure to qualify to the final of the 2015 with the song "Walk Along", the Dutch broadcaster issued a statement to the current affairs programme EenVandaag where they revealed that the broadcaster would continue to internally select both the artist and song for the Eurovision Song Contest and that several artists had already been in contact with the broadcaster in regards to participating.[8] Artists that were rumoured in Dutch media to be in talks with AVROTROS included singer Dotan and the winners of the reality singing competition The Voice of Holland Iris Kroes, who won the second series, and O'G3NE, who won the fifth series.[9][10][11]

On 20 September 2015, Dutch media reported that AVROTROS had selected singer Douwe Bob to represent the Netherlands at the 2016 contest.[12][13] Douwe Bob was confirmed as the Dutch entrant on 22 September 2015 during the Dutch talk show De Wereld Draait Door.[14] The selection of Douwe Bob as the Dutch representative occurred through a unanimous decision by a selection commission consisting of singer and television host Jan Smit, television host and author Cornald Maas, radio DJ Daniël Dekker and AVROTROS media-director Remco van Leen.[15] During his interview on De Wereld Draait Door, Douwe Bob revealed that the selected song was an uptempo track that he recorded in Andalusia while working on material for an upcoming album.[15]

On 4 March 2016, Douwe Bob's Eurovision entry, "Slow Down", was presented to the public during a press conference that took place in Amsterdam.[16][17] The presentation was streamed online by AVROTROS via the Periscope live video streaming app, while the song was premiered at the same time during the NPO Radio 2 programme Aan De Slag!, hosted by Bart Arens.[18][19] The official video for the song directed by Hans Pannecouke also premiered on 4 March.[16] Douwe Bob revealed earlier during an interview for the media platform 3VOOR12 on 15 January 2016 that his Eurovision song was written by Jan Peter Hoekstra, Jeroen Overman, Matthijs van Duijvenbode and Douwe Bob himself.[20]

In the lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest, Douwe Bob's promotional activities occurred entirely within the Netherlands where he performed at live events, radio shows and talk shows. On 9 April, Douwe Bob performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam and hosted by Cornald Maas and Hera Björk.[21] On 21 April, Douwe Bob released the new single, "Jacob's Song", which followed "Slow Down" as the next single from his album Fool Bar, which was released on 6 May.[22] On 28 April, Douwe Bob performed a concert at the Westergasfabriek theatre in Amsterdam prior to travelling to Stockholm, which was partially broadcast live during the NPO 1 programme De Wereld Draait Door and streamed online in full at the television programme's website.[23]

Douwe Bob during a rehearsal before the first semi-final

Douwe Bob took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May.[31] This included the jury show on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.[32]

The Dutch performance featured a band set-up with Douwe Bob wearing a blue suit and performing at a microphone stand while playing a guitar.[33][34] The stage colours were predominately red, orange and purple with the LED screens displaying clocks and turning cogs. Douwe Bob was joined by five band performers/backing vocalists: Jan-Peter Hoekstra, Jeroen Overman, Matthijs van Duijvenbode, Stijn van Dalen and Thijs Boontjes.[35] The staging director for the performance was Hans Pannecoucke, who worked with the Dutch entrants in 2014 and 2015 in a similar role.[36]

At the end of the show, the Netherlands was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.[37] It was later revealed that the Netherlands placed fifth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 197 points: 95 points from the televoting and 102 points from the juries.[38]

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. The Netherlands was drawn to compete in the first half.[39] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. The Netherlands was subsequently placed to perform in position 3, following the entry from Czech Republic and before the entry from Azerbaijan.[40]

Douwe Bob once again took part in dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show.[41] Douwe Bob performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. The Netherlands placed eleventh in the final, scoring 153 points: 39 points from the televoting and 114 points from the juries.[42]

Voting during the three shows was conducted under a new system that involved each country now awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.[43] In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[44]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to the Netherlands and awarded by the Netherlands in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[38][45][46][47]

The following five members comprised the Dutch jury:[43]

• Jennie Lena – Chairperson – singer
• Ruud de Wild – radio DJ
• Marga Bult – singer, represented Netherlands in the 1987 contest
• Setske Mostaert – vocal coach, singer
• Holger Schwedt – producer

Split voting results from the Netherlands (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		J. Lena	R. de Wild	M. Bult	S. Mostaert	H. Schwedt	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Finland	8	4	12	10	4	9	2	15
02	Greece	17	17	17	16	16	17		13
03	Moldova	7	12	11	15	15	14		16
04	Hungary	9	11	8	1	8	8	3	5	6
05	Croatia	1	1	6	4	1	1	12	6	5
06	Netherlands
07	Armenia	10	5	1	8	9	6	5	1	12
08	San Marino	11	6	16	17	10	13		7	4
09	Russia	14	15	3	7	12	10	1	3	8
10	Czech Republic	6	13	5	5	5	7	4	9	2
11	Cyprus	2	9	4	2	3	2	10	8	3
12	Austria	3	2	10	9	7	5	6	2	10
13	Estonia	13	14	13	6	13	12		14
14	Azerbaijan	5	3	7	13	2	4	7	12
15	Montenegro	16	10	14	11	17	15		17
16	Iceland	12	8	9	12	11	11		11
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	15	16	15	14	14	16		4	7
18	Malta	4	7	2	3	6	3	8	10	1

Split voting results from the Netherlands (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		J. Lena	R. de Wild	M. Bult	S. Mostaert	H. Schwedt	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Belgium	11	13	2	6	17	7	4	1	12
02	Czech Republic	24	6	12	7	10	11		24
03	Netherlands
04	Azerbaijan	12	12	14	15	4	10	1	23
05	Hungary	23	11	15	10	18	17		13
06	Italy	7	5	7	14	9	5	6	20
07	Israel	10	4	5	4	16	4	7	18
08	Bulgaria	22	7	19	23	7	18		10	1
09	Sweden	5	2	9	1	1	2	10	9	2
10	Germany	8	14	20	25	12	19		19
11	France	17	8	6	11	6	6	5	7	4
12	Poland	16	25	24	21	25	25		2	10
13	Australia	1	3	1	2	3	1	12	6	5
14	Cyprus	13	23	21	5	14	16		15
15	Serbia	15	16	16	17	24	20		21
16	Lithuania	21	21	23	8	21	22		12
17	Croatia	3	24	10	18	5	12		25
18	Russia	20	15	8	3	19	13		8	3
19	Spain	9	9	17	20	13	14		11
20	Latvia	2	17	22	19	15	15		17
21	Ukraine	4	22	11	12	2	8	3	4	7
22	Malta	14	20	13	22	20	21		22
23	Georgia	19	19	25	16	23	23		16
24	Austria	6	1	3	13	8	3	8	5	6
25	United Kingdom	25	18	18	24	22	24		14
26	Armenia	18	10	4	9	11	9	2	3	8