THE NETHERLANDS – The Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam will soon contain fewer antics, no faint, written jokes and offers more room for spontaneity and feeling than we are used to. That is what the so-called “Magic 100” says: a group of known and unknown people who think along about the creative interpretation.
“What you often see is that making plans for the Eurovision Song Contest and developing and implementing them is done in a room with a few people. We could do that too, but that is not who we are as Dutch, “says song festival boss Sietse Bakker. “If we want to hand out a business card, it must have come about together.”
The organization, consisting of the NPO, NOS and broadcaster AVROTROS, therefore listened to the creative industry and spoke with, among others, museum directors, fashion designers and trendsetters, but also with “ordinary people on the street”. What do they expect from the Eurovision Song Contest and what should be different from previous shows?
Bakker: “The Dutch really love. That means that we don’t necessarily have to go for another even more exuberant Song Contest than in recent years with a lot of frills, but that we are going to see if we can bring back the feeling. You hear about some previous editions: everything was right, but it was all very technical and tight. We need to look up the sensitive chord a little more.”
The most important lessons from all those conversations? The head of the organization says he cannot go into detail.
“It may be a bit of an oddity cabinet. A party, that is also part of the Eurovision Song Contest. But I think you won’t see any written jokes from the presenters in May. Also no act that we see them in a car in the beginning and have to hope that they will arrive on time. No, we are not going to do those tricks. It will be more sincere and spontaneous, because that is what the Netherlands stands for.”
Around a hundred well-known and unknown Dutch people were already thinking about what the Eurovision Song Contest should look like.
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