With Italy’s victory last year and the podium places for France and Switzerland, each of which sang in their own national language, there is again more attention for singing in their own language at the Eurovision Song Contest. That used to be an obligation, but since 1999 you can choose in which language you sing, which brought with it a dominance of English.
The last good score for a Dutch song dates from 1998, when Edsilia Rombley (one of last year’s presenters) achieved a nice fourth place with the song “Hemel en Aarde”. In the years 1957, 1959 and 1969, the Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest each time with a song in Dutch.
The last time a song for Belgium was heard in Dutch at the Eurovision Song Contest was already 1996. Then Lisa del Bo sang “Love is a card game”.
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