The Netherlands
The basics Full country name Kingdom of the Netherlands Capital Amsterdam Facts First participation 1956 (Corry Brokken) Victories 1957 (Corry Brokken) 1959 (Teddy Scholten) 1969 (Lenny Kuhr) 1975 (Teach-In) Hosts Hilversum 1958 Amsterdam 1970 The Hague 1976 The Hague 1980
The Netherlands entered the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. The Netherlands has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times in total. Two times in the 1950s, one time in the 1970s and one time, shared with three other countries in 1969.
The Netherlands won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in 1957 and won again in 1959, setting an early record of two victories in the first four years. After a record-setting 1950s, the new decade didn’t bring much success to the Dutch entries and, in fact, they came last three times until Lenny Kuhr finished as one of the four winners of the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest. De Trobadour was a folk-inspired ballad about the impact the music has on the audiences in the Middle Ages.
ABBA won that 1974 Eurovision Song Contest so we move to Stockholm where The Netherlands were drawn to open the competition with the up-tempo Ding-A-Dong and the group Teach-In. Surprisingly this jolly positive ode won the contest, the first time that the show’s opener became the winner and one that put The Netherlands again at the leaderboard with four victories, tying with France, who then overtook when they won for the fifth time in 1977.
In 1980 Dutch television stepped in to host the Eurovision Song Contest after Israel declined to stage the contest for the second year in a row. From 2005 to 2012 The Netherlands didn’t qualify for a single Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The Dutch fortunes in the Eurovision Song Contest have changed in recent years and the country has qualified in four out of the last five contests, including finishing second in the Grand Final in 2014.
