The Netherlands at Instaglobal Song Contest 14

The Netherlands participated in the 14th edition of the Instaglobal Song Contest. It was also the 14th time the country participated. For the fourth time in a row, the country chose to select their entry by a national final called *Nederlands Songfestival*. The winner was Chinook with the song "Dancing In Flames", who got in the final for the Netherlands after two years of non-qualification. She got there a 22nd place out of the 28 finalists with 80 points. Broadcaster AVROTROS was responsible for the Dutch entry.

Dutch fans of Instaglobal were furious after the non-qualification of Sharon Doorson last edition. For this edition, AVROTROS wanted to give '*several rounds in one show, so that people can rethink their options so we can have a better entry that will qualify again for the Instaglobal final.*' This statement was the core of how *Nederlands Songfestival IV* should look like.

## Nederlands Songfestival IV

### Format

Out of an open call for songs, eight entries were chosen to perform at a live televised final. After each artists' performance, other Instaglobal delegations could vote for their favourite. The three highest ranked entries would qualify for a superfinal, where they would perform their song again. Out of these three, the Instaglobal delegations had to vote again and the winner would go to Instaglobal 14 and the runner-up would go to the Second Chance Contest.

#### Participants

Despite criticism and their non-qualifications in the last two editions, Eva Simons ft. Sidney Samson and Sharon Doorson returned to the Dutch selection. However, they got strong competition according to the bookmakers. Since the performance of Within Temptation at *Nederlands Songfestival III*, other metalbands were interested in competing, which made Epica and Nightwish decide to compete. There was also international talent: Chinook is Dutch, but her successes are mostly based in Scandinavia. Also famous Polish-Dutch rapper Mr. Polska joined unexpectedly the competition.

### Voting

In the first round, Instaglobal delegations had to divide 100 points among the eight contestants, with the only restriction that they had to divide the points among at least three entries. In the superfinal, the delegations had to give 0, 1 and 2 points, where 2 was given to their favourite song and 0 to their least favourite.

In the first round, Chinook came out as the obvious winner. Numbers 2 and 3 (Nightwish and Sharon Doorson) also made it to the superfinal, but with only 2 points between them. The superfinal had however no different outcome than the first round: Chinook won, Nightwish came second and Sharon Doorson came 3rd.

### Results

#### First round

In gold: the qualifiers for the Superfinal.

#### Superfinal

In gold: the winner of *Nederlands Songfestival IV*

In silver: the runner-up (going to Instaglobal Second Chance)

 2
 3

## At Instaglobal

Chinook had to perform in Lisbon second at the second semi-final, after Belgium and before Hungary. Chinook knew for the first time since the 11th edition to qualify for the Netherlands, coming fifth with 81 points. In the final, she performed 18th, after Canada and before Armenia. At the end of the voting, Chinook received 80 points and a 22nd place out of 28 finalists. She received two times the maximum of 12 points, by Belgium and South Africa.

### Points awarded to the Netherlands

Semi-final
* Italy
* Mexico
 5 points
 * Hungary
* Morocco
* South Korea
* Estonia
* Georgia

Final
* South Africa
 5 points
 * Iceland
* Mexico
* Morocco
* South Korea
* Norway

### At Second Chance

Nightwish performed their song "Élan" at the 4th Instaglobal Second Chance held in New York, USA. Due to the non-qualification of Kovacs previous edition, the band had to perform in the semi-final. Nightwish performed 4th on the evening, after Turkey and before Croatia. At the end, the band became 15th out of 21 competitors with 48 points, just not enough to qualify for the final.