The Netherlands was represented by
Teddy Scholten, with the song "
Een beetje", at the
1959 Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was the fourth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest, held on Wednesday 11 March 1959 at the in Cannes, France, and hosted by French television presenter Jacqueline Joubert. Organised by the European B ...
, which took place on 11 March in
Cannes,
France. Song and singer were chosen independently of each other at the Dutch national final, held on 17 February. Scholten went on to win the 1959 contest for the Netherlands, the first time a country had scored two Eurovision victories. The 1957 contest winner
Corry Brokken failed in her bid to represent the Netherlands for a fourth consecutive year, while future Dutch representative
Greetje Kauffeld was also among those taking part.
Before Eurovision
Nationaal Songfestival 1959
The national final took place at the
AVRO
AVRO, short for Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep ("General Association of Radio Broadcasting"), was a Dutch public broadcasting association operating within the framework of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep system. It was the first public broad ...
TV studios in
Hilversum
Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hilvers ...
, hosted by Karin Kraaykamp. Eight songs and seven singers were involved, with all songs presented twice by different performers, once with a full orchestra and once in a more pared-down style.
The winning song was chosen by votes from regional juries, then an "expert" jury decided which of the two performers and versions of the winning song should go to Cannes. After "Een beetje" was announced the winner, the expert jury chose Scholten with the full orchestra version of the song.
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Scholten performed 5th in the running order, following
Monaco and preceding
Germany. At the close of voting "Een beetje" had received 21 points, winning the contest by a 5-point margin over runners-up the
United Kingdom. The Netherlands thus became the first country to win Eurovision twice.
ESC History - Netherlands 1959
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The Dutch conductor at the contest was Dolf van der Linden.
Rumours after the contest suggested that the Italian jury had awarded a very high 7 points to "Een beetje" in order to reduce the chances of a French or British win, but these were never substantiated.
Voting
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.
External links
Dutch Preselection 1959
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Netherlands In The Eurovision Song Contest 1959
1959
Events January
* January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
* January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1959
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...