# Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

The Netherlands will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "C'est la vie", written by Arno Krabman, Claude Kiambe, Joren van der Voort, and Léon Paul Palmen, and performed by Claude himself. The Dutch participating broadcaster, AVROTROS, internally selected its entry for the contest.

## Background

Prior to the 2025 contest, AVROTROS and its predecessor national broadcasters had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing the Netherlands sixty-four times since NTS's debut in the inaugural contest in 1956. Since then, they had won the event five times: in 1957 with the song "Net als toen" by Corry Brokken, in 1959 with the song "'n Beetje" by Teddy Scholten, in 1969 as one of the four countries to tie for first place with "De troubadour" by Lenny Kuhr, in 1975 with "Ding-a-dong" by Teach-In, and in 2019 with "Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, they had featured in nine finals. They ended last on five occasions, most recently in the second semi-final of the 2011 contest. In 2024, "Europapa" by Joost Klein placed second in its semi-final and qualified for the final, but was disqualified due to a backstage incident involving Klein and a production staff member. This incident was subsequently investigated by Swedish prosecutors, who later dropped the case after concluding that no criminal conduct could be proven.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, AVROTROS organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has used various methods to select the Dutch entry in the past, such as the Nationaal Songfestival, a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. Internal selections have also been held on occasion, including every year since 2013. On 23 October 2024, AVROTROS confirmed its participation in the 2025 contest, announcing that it would continue to internally select its entry after Klein declined its offer to represent the Netherlands for a second consecutive time.

## Before Eurovision
### Internal selection

A submission period was opened by AVROTROS on 23 October 2024 where artists and composers were able to submit their entries until 22 November 2024. Artists had to be affiliated with a record company or label and have recent stage experience, while songwriters were not required to indicate a performer for their song, who would be selected afterwards; however, precedence would be given to complete submissions. Each artist and songwriter was able to submit a maximum of three songs. 331 submissions were received by the broadcaster at the closing of the deadline, and among the artists involved included former Dutch Eurovision entrants Gerard Joling (1988), Anouk (2013) and Douwe Bob (2016).
On 19 December 2024, AVROTROS announced that it had selected Claude to represent the Netherlands at the 2025 contest. The selection of Claude as the Dutch representative was carried out by a committee consisting of singers Jacqueline Govaert and Jaap Reesema, radio DJs Carolien Borgers [nl], Hila Noorzai [nl] and Sander Lantinga, and television host and author Cornald Maas, following a final audition round featuring a shortlist of six acts, including singers Judith van Hirtum and Paul Morris, that took place on 9 December 2024. During an interview on the NPO 1 talk show Eva  [nl] the same day the artist announcement occurred, Claude revealed that his Eurovision song was written by himself together with Arno Krabman, Joren van der Voort and Léon Paul Palmen. The song, titled "C'est la vie", was released on 27 February 2025 but was leaked online in its entirety the day prior to the reveal.