Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008
The Netherlands was represented by Hind in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Your Heart Belongs to Me". Before Eurovision. Internal selection. Following Edsilia Rombley's failure to qualify to the final of the 2007 with the song "On Top of the World", the Dutch broadcaster revealed that the broadcaster would continue to internally select both the artist and song for the Eurovision Song Contest and that several artists had already been in contact with the broadcaster in regards to participating. Artists that were rumoured in Dutch media to be in  talks with NOS included the band Bearforce 1 and 1988 Dutch Eurovision entrant Gerard Joling. On 9 November 2007, Dutch media reported that NOS had selected singer Hind Laroussi to represent the Netherlands at the 2008 contest. Hind was confirmed as the Dutch entrant on 23 November 2007 during a press conference. Following the press conference, a song submission period was opened where composers were able to submit their songs in English. On 7 March 2008, Hind's Eurovision entry, "Your Heart Belongs to Me", written by Tjeerd van Zanen, Bas van den Heuvel and Hind herself, was presented to  the public during the Nederland 3 programme "Thank God it's Friday", hosted by Claudia de Breij. The song is an up-tempo pop song with rock and Arabic influences. The official video for the song directed by Jelle Posthuma was premiered on 18 March. At Eurovision. As the Netherlands did not qualify for the final in 2007, the country needed to participate in the first semi-final on 20 May 2008. However, they failed to qualify to compete in the final on 24 May. For the 2008 contest the spokesperson for the Netherlands was Esther Hart. Netherlands in the