The Netherlands at Instaglobal Song Contest 17

The Netherlands participated at the 17th Instaglobal Song Contest in Chisinau, Moldova. It was also the seventeenth time the country participated at the music event. Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS was responsible for the Dutch entry, which was chosen by the selection *Nederlands Songfestival*for the seventh time. The selection was won by Youtuber and singer Dionne with 'You Be You', giving her the right to represent the Netherlands. In Chisinau, she qualified for the final and got awarded a 25th place out of 28 participants.

Dionne won the selection with only 6 points ahead of runner-up San Holo. There was a lot of criticism about this, certainly because San Holo and Dionne got the same amount of points from the Instaglobal Jury. AVROTROS stated after the commotion that 'Dionne would stay the winner and San Holo will go to Instaglobal Second Chance, although we're still waiting for the acceptance to participate there.'

## Nederlands Songfestival VII

*Nederlands Songfestival* was chosen by AVROTROS to be the national final for Instaglobal 17 for the seventh time in a row. It was stated to be a huge success in the Netherlands and the winners of the selection all got successfully enough results, qualifying 4 out of the 6 times it was hosted. For this, AVROTROS hoped to let *Nederlands Songfestival* on air as long as possible, perhaps making it the longest national selection running in Instaglobal history.

### Format

The format for *Nederlands Songfestival VII* was the same as its previous edition. Eight entries would fight for the win on a live stage. After performing, a Province Jury and an Instaglobal Jury would decide the winner and who'd go to Chisinau.

### Participants

All eight participants were new and never participated at *Nederlands Songfestival* before. AVROTROS chose artists from all different genres. Famous Dutch bands Bløf and Racoon (real veterans in the Dutch music scene) participated, but also modern acts like San Holo, Alex Green, Dionne and DJ duo Deepend. Also Jacqueline Govaert, former lead singer of the band Krezip, did a try for Instaglobal participation. Elise de Koning was the last singer to debut on *Nederlands Songfestival* this edition with a popballad in Dutch.

### Voting

The voting procedure also didn't change. The juries from each province (together in the Province Jury) and the juries from 28 Instaglobal Delegations (together in the Instaglobal Jury) could all split 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points. The participant with the most votes at the end was declared winner of *Nederlands Songfestival VII*.

### Results

Just as at *Nederlands Songfestival VI*, each province from the Province Jury was called up to give their individual votes. After these votes were done, the votes of the Instaglobal Jury were given as one.

The Province Jury gave a tensed result: Dionne was leading with 116 points, but San Holo was close behind her with only 110 points. The suspense was again built up very well when it was known that the Instaglobal Jury didn't have one of these entries outside their top 2 as well. Then the shocking moment happend: the spokesperson for the Instaglobal Jury awarded both San Holo and Dionne 246 points, meaning Dionne won only due to the preference of the Province Jury.

There came a big boo in the halls after this, fans of San Holo were disappointed that their favourite just didn't won after such a close voting. The press gave afterwards even a call for a new battle between Dionne and San Holo, since in their believes no artist was truly better than the other according to the Instaglobal delegations, and they decide eventually the result of the Dutch entries at Instaglobal. Broadcaster AVROTROS stated not to be interested in another show or superfinal, just as Dionne and San Holo weren't interested. The fuss was then over, but the dissatisfaction wasn't gone.

#### Results table

In gold: the winner of *Nederlands Songfestival VII*

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

#### Spokespersons

All the twelve juries from the provinces had their own spokesperson to give the votes. These were all former Instaglobal participants for the Netherlands. The respective spokespersons were:

**Drenthe**: Years & Years (IGC 10, 17th place)

**Flevoland**: Emmaly Brown (IGC 5, 23rd place)

**Friesland**: Yellow Claw (IGC 3, 5th place)

**Gelderland**: Nicky Romero (IGC 6, 26th place)

**Groningen**: Krystl (IGC 16, 18th place)

**Limburg**: Charlene (IGC 8, 28th place)

**North Brabant**: TP4Y (IGC 9, 16th place)

**North Holland**: Eva Simons (IGC 4/IGC 7/IGC 12, 23rd/4th/8th (semi) place)

**Overijssel**: Martin Garrix (IGC 11, 5th place)

**South Holland**: Chinook (IGC 14, 22nd place)

**Utrecht**: Sharon Doorson (IGC 13, 13th place (semi))

**Zeeland**: Dotan (IGC 1, 11th place)

## At Instaglobal

Dionne had to start in the semi-finals of Instaglobal 17, due to not being the host entry or part of the big 5. She had to open the second semi-final and performed before South Korea. After the semi-final, she was announced to be one of the seven direct qualifiers of this semi-final, ending up 4th with 78 points. In the final, Dionne had to perform 20th after Ireland and before Romania. She didn't get the amount of points she hoped: she gained 58 points and ended up in 25th place. She could only leave Estonia, Lithuania and South Korea behind her. Dionne was disappointed by her results, but also hoped that her performance would encourage other Youtubers to perform at Instaglobal as well.

### At Second Chance

Being the runner-up of *Nederlands Songfestival VII*, San Holo was invited by AVROTROS to be the Dutch representative for IGC Second Chance 7. San Holo accepted, but then couldn't participate because in the rush of applications, AVROTROS was too late to apply. Therefore, the tensions of Dionne winning *Nederlands Songfestival VII* only became higher again, since San Holo couldn't appear on any Instaglobal event at all that season.