Last night The Dutch chose Je Vecht Nooit Alleen to be the song for 3JS to sing in Dusseldorf, as a song it’s all right, but it’s no winner if you ask me. Will it ven qualify to the final? We can only wait and see what the other countries put through on the night.

The Netherlands will perform in the first half of the Second Semi Final on May 12th 2011.

Earlier the Netherlands announced their entrant for next years Eurovision competition, 3JS.

They are a trio of Dutch singers January Dulles, Jaap Kwakman and Jaap de Witte formed in 2007. They have had 3 albums to date and have had a good bit of success in their native Netherlands with 2 of their albums going gold and the third only released a few months ago. Their songs are described as Dutch pop with a dash of Irish folk. This is the third time that they have been asked to represent The Netherlands, in 2009 and 2010 previously but they refused at those points, I wonder what changed for them this time?

Unlike last year the public will have a say in the song again, there will be 50% televote and 50% jury vote in the Dutch national final, the song at the moment will likely be in Dutch as well.

You can find out more about 3JS at their website http://www.3js.nl/index/.

I’ll let you decide, it might get through on the quirky factor that Portugal had last year. I hate to admit it but it’s growing on me…

That’s right, his supreme Eurovision majesty will be one of the Dutch jury members when they select who will sing the Smurf song.

He will be accompanied by Daniël Dekker, Tatjana Simic and George Baker. Everyone of them gets to decide 20% of the final result. With the studio audience making up the the other 20%.

Come back to us your majesty, we will oust RTE for you!

In a shocking turn of events… yet another coach has pulled out of the dull as dishwater final to see who will sing the smurf song this sunday.

RTL Boulevard reported today on their website that Corry Konings has decided to stop coaching Marlous, one of the five contestants for the Nationaal Songfestival next Sunday. This withdrawal means that Marlous is automatically disqualified. TROS has confirmed this news but states that they’re trying to keep Marlous in the race, it’s a little late for that eh fellas? This brings a total of two singing coaches to resign so far with Edsilia going on January 26th.

I’m actually putting money down on all the artists and coaches dropping out before Sunday as no one in their right mind, and lets face it the Dutch will do pretty much anything, wants to actually die on stage with that song.

It’s no secret that the Dutch song is not a very popular one especially amongst the Dutch. Last Friday TROS announced the 5 poor unfortunates who will compete to sing the song, along with their singing coaches who would have been singing professionals from the Dutch music industry. Well today Edsilia has pulled out of the coaching saying she didn’t like the way the song was selected. Is this the beginning of the end for TROS’s selection?

Here are the those poor poor souls singing the song of a thousand deaths.

Sieneke
Marlous
Vinzzent
Peggy
LOEKZ

Oh did I mention that there will be no public vote now for the song either? It will be an internal jury and the studio audience during the live final.

In case you don’t know, or care, here is the Dutch song this year, Ik ben verliefd (shalalie) by Pierre Kartner.

It’s a little naff isn’t it? I mean yes there is a certain charm about it, don’t get me wrong, but it really is a song for another generation, of kids who watch the Smurfs, in the 70′s.

In fact most Dutch feel so strongly about it they don’t want it representing their country. A group of euro fanatics and several member of the Dutch music industry have petitioned TROS (The Dutch broadcaster) to remove the song in favour of other composers like Brendan Graham (Ireland 1994, 1996) and Yves Barbieux and Michél Morvan, who wrote the song for Urban Trad in 2003. They have returned several unopened submissions to composers over the past year leading to a lot of speculation amongst the Dutch press that TROS just don’t really care anymore. However according to TROS “We definately are aiming for a spot in the final”, a spokesman states.

This Friday TROS is going to announce the artists taking part in the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival, on 7 February. Lets wait and see which poor unfortunate will sing this, I for one am hoping it’s one big April Fools joke

In fairness I’d be miffed too if entries like Hind’s 2008 performance got glossed over for other less qualified entries.