THE NETHERLANDS – To show appreciation for the massive effort of the creative and production team of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in May of 2021, host broadcaster TVP has invited a Dutch winner to perform on Sunday. Duncan Laurence, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2019 with his song Arcade, bringing the Contest back to The Netherlands after more than 40 years, will perform together with Polish Junior Eurovision winners Viki Gabor and Roksana Węgiel.
RE-RELEASE
Dutch singer Duncan Laurence, winner of the Eurovision Festival 2019, recently launched a new version of “Arcade” with the American singer FLETCHER. The new version was launched on digital platforms, as well as on YouTube, using the official video of the theme.
The singer Duncan Laurence was chosen internally by AVROTROS to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Festival 2019. ARCADE won the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with 498 pints giving The Netherlands the trophy the first since 1975.
SONG HISTORY
Duncan Laurence wrote the song while he attended the Tilburg Rock Academy. He worked on the song for over two years, predominantly while collaborating with Wouter Hardy, a former band member with Sharon Kovacs.
The song is inspired by the heartbreak of a loved one of Duncan’s who died. According to him, Arcade is a story about the search for the love of your life, and about the hope to reach something that seems unreachable.
The namesake lyric “Small town boy in a big arcade” refers to his experience, being from a small town, as a Rock Academy freshman entering the summer fair of Tilburg, the largest in The Netherlands. Throughout the song, the fair and its arcade games are used as a metaphor for love, addiction and gambling with relationships.
Arcade is inspired by film soundtracks and consists of 165 tracks. The song opens with four chords played on a piano, accompanied by a simple piano riff and overdubbed vocals. The triple metre verses contrast with the 4/4 time signature of the rest of the song, giving it a distinct sound.
Heavy emphasis is put on Duncan’s vocals. After the soft verses, in which he expresses his sadness and vulnerability, the chorus kicks in with heavy drums, accompanied with a choir of backing vocals, to enhance the lyrics’ expressions of anger and frustration.
