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Netherlands: Cornald Maas Almost Resigned Amid Netherlands’ Eurovision 2023 Controversy

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Cornald Maas, revealed that the controversy surrounding the Netherlands’ Eurovision 2023 entry nearly pushed him to step down from his role.

The controversy revolved around the Netherlands’ choice of Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper for Eurovision 2023, particularly their live performances of their song “Burning Daylight” at pre-parties leading up to the competition. These performances faced intense criticism and even ridicule within the Dutch media.

Speaking on the NPO radio program ‘Mischa!’ earlier this week, Maas expressed how the relentless criticism by Dutch media of Mia & Dion had a lasting and detrimental impact on him and those close to him. Despite these challenges, Maas ultimately decided to remain part of the Dutch Eurovision team, as Eurovision has a special place in his heart.

Even though the song was revamped to help the artists better perform it, “Burning Daylight” did not advance to the Grand Final of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, marking the first Dutch entry not to qualify since 2015.

Maas says that the criticism by local media affected even his family. He also added:

“It was not over in a day or a week. There were so many untruths that were debated. In consultation with AVROTROS, I did not respond to this so that the oil slick would not get bigger. That went against my character and my nature.”

Affected by this controversy was also Eurovision 2019 winner Duncan Laurence, who was one of the writers of the entry and was appointed to train the artists for the Eurovision stage.

After the end of Eurovision 2023, AVROTROS acknowledged that mistakes were made in selecting “Burning Daylight” for Eurovision 2023. Consequently, there have been changes within the Dutch Eurovision team, with Twan van de Nieuwenhuijze appointed as the Head of Delegation for the Netherlands and the new chairman of the selection committee.

The Netherlands will select its entry internally for Eurovision 2024 and Cornald Maas remains as part of the selecting jury.

Source: RTL Boulevard

 

 

Netherlands: Listen to the runner-up song of the Dutch internal selection! | EXCLUSIVE

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Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper, were the representatives of the Netherlands in this year’s Eurovision, with their song “Buring Daylight”, composed alongside the country’s last winner, Duncan Laurence. Eurovisionfun is here to present to you, the song that almost represented the country in Eurovision 2023, namely, the runner-up of the internal selection, conducted once again by the Dutch public broadcaster.

According to our exclusive information, Merol, with her song “Applaus”, came second in the selection process. Merol is widely known in the Netherlands and is a synth pop artist, while her songs are aiming on the millenials, talking about their life, drugs and sex.

You can listen to her song that almost set a foot on the 67th Eurovision Song Contest’s stage, below:

The Netherlands, didn’t manage to qualify to the Grand Final, for the first time after six years, getting only 7 points and 13th place in the semi-final.

Do you think Merol, would have been able to qualify for yet another year for the Netherlands?

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The Netherlands: Viewers’ interest wanes as Mia & Dion fail to qualify for the Grand Final!

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Viewers’ interest in the Eurovision Song Contest continues to wane as Dutch duo Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper failed to qualify for the final.

More generally, there was critisism of the duo by serveral compatriots and also by the country’s own National Broadcaster. A few days before the rehearsals started, statements were made by the country’s public television Avrortos and also by a composer of the song and Eurovision 2019 winner Duncan Laurence.

You can find more about it in our articles here and here.

The Dutch delegation did their best to “rescue” the song and the artists reputation, but they did not succeed and this was shown by yestrday’s exclusion.

Viewers who tuned in to watch the first Semi-Final averaged 2,124,000 and had a 40% audience share. Although the competition was the most-watched show, viewership was down 100,000 from 2022.

During the competition, up to 4,727,000 viewers tuned in to watch the broadcast via NPO1, up from nearly 5.1 million viewers in 2022.

The conclusion is that interest will be lost even more, because this year’s participation was the first since 2015 to not qualify, with the qualifying streak ending in 2023.

Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for all the latest developments regarding Eurovision 2023! Follow us on all social media, so you do not miss a thing of what will happen in Liverpool:

 

Eurovision 2023: The Netherlands’ Second Rehearsal!

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Second to last act to come up on the stage are Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper from Netherlands with their balad “Burning Daylight”.

Who are Mia & Dion?

Mia Nicolai is 26 years old and she grew up with music. She has been taking violin and piano lessons since the age of three and received a very creative upbringing from her family, with drama, ballet, music and storytelling. After living in London, Melbourne and Mexico, she moved to Los Angeles where she resides permanetley. Her first single titled “Set Me Free” was released in 2020.

Dion Cooper is a 28 year old and he has always dreamed of becoming an artist and making music. He picked up a guitar at the age of fifteen and he has never put it down ever since. In the following years, he began to sing and write his own music and in 2021 released hus first EP called “Too Young Too Dumb” making a million streams on music platforms.

Among the writing team of the song “Burning Daylight” was the Dutch winner of Eurovision 2019 Duncan Laurence. The song made a huge impression on the entire selection jury, being unanimously chosen as the Dutch entry for this year’s Eurovision.

The Rehearsal

Unfortunately this year, accredited journalists don’t get the chance to watch the first and second rehearsals, so we only get the information and content that the organizers officially release to the public.

As we know so far, Mia and Dion are standing on a small revolving stage, it penetrates a beautiful effect as they move around each other against the backdrop of spotlights in the arena. It’s a complex camera set-up that makes the whole performance feel really intimate. There is a harmony on their voices compared to the staging and the outfits that makes that really special and powerful that everyone will have goosebumps.

Netherlands Second Rehearsal 1

Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU

Netherlands Second Rehearsal 2

Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU

Below you can watch a small clip from the Dutch second rehearsal, once it’s published on YouTube:

The Dress Rehearsal for Netherlands and the rest of Semi Final 1 will be held on the 8th of May.

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The Netherlands: Listen to Burning Daylight, the country’s entry for Eurovision 2023!

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The Netherlands’ public broadcaster AVROTROS revealed in early November that Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper will represent their country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool.

The song is titled “Burning Daylight” and is in English. It was written by Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper, dutch Eurovision 2019 winner Duncan Laurence, as well as Jordan Garfield and LUKAZ.

Listen to “Burning Daylight” below:

Who are Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper?

Mia Nicolai is 26 years old She grew up with and around music, as she has been taking violin and piano lessons since the age of three and has received a very creative upbringing from her home, with drama, ballet, music and storytelling. After living in London, Melbourne and Mexico, she moved to Los Angeles where she resides permanently. Her first single titled “Set Me Free” was released in 2020. Her second single “Mutual Needs” was aired on the Zane Lowe Radio Show.

Dion Cooper is 28 years old and has always dreamed of becoming an artist and making music. He picked up a guitar for the first time at fifteen and has never put it down since. In the following years he began to sing and write his own music and in 2021 he released his first EP ‘Too Young Too Dumb’, followed by the single “Fire” released with Maxine, which reached almost a million streams within a few months.

What do you think of Burning Daylight? Tell us in the comments and stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all developments regarding the dutch participation in Eurovision 2023!

Netherlands: Watch a teaser of the music video of “Burning Daylight” by Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper!

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Just a few hours remaining, until the releasement of the Dutch song for Eurovision 2023. “Burning Daylight” is the title of the song with which Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper will travel to Liverpool!

We remind you that the song was composed by Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper themselves, as well as the Dutch winner of Eurovision 20219, Duncan Laurence, alongside Jordan Garfield and LUKAZ.

A few hours ago, a little teaser of the music video was published.

You can watch it below:

The music video will be released tomorow on 19:15 CET, on NPO 1 and the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.

But before we listen to “Burning Daylight”, let’s remember one of the most liked Dutch entries by the fans of the contest for one last time. S10 represented the Netherlands in Eurovision 2022 with her song “De Diepte”, performed entirely in Dutch. She ended up in 11th place of the Grand Final but she still remains one of the fan-favourites. Enjoy:

Stay tuned on Eurovisionfun for all the news regarding the XX participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in Liverpool!