Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Prior to the 2018 contest, the Netherlands had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-eight times since their début as one of seven countries to take part in the inaugural contest in 1956.[1] Since then, the country has won the contest four times: in 1957 with the song "Net als toen" performed by Corry Brokken;[2] in 1959 with the song "'n Beetje" performed by Teddy Scholten;[3] in 1969 as one of four countries to tie for first place with "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr;[4] and finally in 1975 with "Ding-a-Dong" performed by the group Teach-In.[5] Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, the Netherlands had featured in five finals. The Dutch least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on five occasions, most recently in the second semi-final of the 2011 contest.[6] The Netherlands has also received nul points on two occasions; in 1962 and 1963.[7] In 2017 O'G3NE ended 11th with the song "Lights and Shadows".

The Dutch national broadcaster, AVROTROS, broadcasts the event within the Netherlands and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Netherlands has used various methods to select the Dutch entry in the past, such as the Nationaal Songfestival, a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However, internal selections have also been held on occasion. Since 2013, the broadcaster has internally selected the Dutch entry for the contest. In 2013, the internal selection of Anouk performing "Birds" managed to take the country to the final for the first time in eight years and placed ninth overall. In 2014, the internal selection of The Common Linnets performing the song "Calm After the Storm" qualified the nation to the final once again and placed second, making it the most successful Dutch result in the contest since their victory in 1975. For 2018, the broadcaster opted to continue selecting the Dutch entry through an internal selection.[8]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Netherlands was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[13]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Netherlands was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from Moldova and preceding the entry from Australia.[14]

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Dutch jury: [15]

• Sharon den Adel – Chairperson – singer
• Arno Krabman – producer, songwriter
• Robert Ester – music and content director
• Rick Vol – composer, writer, manager
• Lesley Joanna van der Aa – singer

Split voting results from Netherlands (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Krabman	R. Ester	S. den Adel	R. Vol	L. J. Van der Aa	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	2	2	4	3	2	2	10	2	10
02	Romania	8	11	10	16	3	9	2	14
03	Serbia	9	10	7	12	11	11		10	1
04	San Marino	12	13	16	11	14	13		17
05	Denmark	13	14	15	10	15	14		1	12
06	Russia	16	16	14	14	16	16		16
07	Moldova	6	4	17	5	9	8	3	4	7
08	Netherlands
09	Australia	7	6	5	9	6	7	4	7	4
10	Georgia	17	15	13	17	17	17		12
11	Poland	3	5	9	8	5	6	5	6	5
12	Malta	10	12	12	6	10	10	1	13
13	Hungary	15	9	8	15	12	12		3	8
14	Latvia	5	8	2	4	4	4	7	11
15	Sweden	1	1	3	2	1	1	12	5	6
16	Montenegro	14	17	11	13	13	15		15
17	Slovenia	4	3	1	7	7	3	8	8	3
18	Ukraine	11	7	6	1	8	5	6	9	2

Split voting results from Netherlands (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Krabman	R. Ester	S. den Adel	R. Vol	L. J. Van der Aa	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	17	13	9	7	17	14		23
02	Spain	18	11	6	24	6	11		22
03	Slovenia	8	6	8	14	16	10	1	25
04	Lithuania	6	1	2	11	5	4	7	19
05	Austria	3	8	4	3	2	2	10	8	3
06	Estonia	7	4	10	6	12	7	4	11
07	Norway	12	7	17	9	4	8	3	10	1
08	Portugal	16	10	3	23	11	9	2	21
09	United Kingdom	15	24	20	17	9	18		16
10	Serbia	21	22	19	16	21	24		17
11	Germany	4	3	1	4	1	1	12	1	12
12	Albania	14	19	11	13	14	16		20
13	France	13	18	21	22	15	21		14
14	Czech Republic	19	16	22	10	13	17		5	6
15	Denmark	25	23	23	18	25	25		3	8
16	Australia	11	15	12	12	7	13		15
17	Finland	22	21	14	20	23	22		24
18	Bulgaria	9	12	5	15	19	12		18
19	Moldova	10	17	25	21	20	20		12
20	Sweden	2	5	13	2	3	3	8	13
21	Hungary	24	20	15	19	24	23		9	2
22	Israel	5	9	16	1	18	6	5	2	10
23	Netherlands
24	Ireland	20	14	24	8	8	15		7	4
25	Cyprus	1	2	18	5	10	5	6	6	5
26	Italy	23	25	7	25	22	19		4	7

Points awarded by The Netherlands

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Denmark  Sweden 10 points  Norway  Norway 8 points  Hungary  Slovenia 7 points  Moldova  Latvia 6 points  Sweden  Ukraine 5 points  Poland  Poland 4 points  Australia  Australia 3 points  Slovenia  Romania 2 points  Ukraine  Moldova 1 point  Serbia  Malta

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Germany  Germany 10 points  Israel  Austria 8 points  Denmark  Sweden 7 points  Italy  Lithuania 6 points  Czech Republic  Cyprus 5 points  Cyprus  Israel 4 points  Ireland  Estonia 3 points  Austria  Norway 2 points  Hungary  Portugal 1 point  Norway  Slovenia

Media related to Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at Wikimedia Commons

• Official AVROTROS Eurovision site