Dutch Music (6): A Round Up

To end this short series about Dutch music here are a few other famous Dutch artists you may, or may not, have heard of.

Blof: four Dutch guys from Vlissingen who formed a band back in 1992 and who are still going strong. They became very popular at the end of the '90s and peaked at the beginning of the '00s. In 2001, their drummer Chris Gotte died in a motorcycle accident and the band took some time out to mourn the loss. In 2004, they took on a more international dimension with a performance with The Counting Crows with the single "Holiday in Spain".

Marco Borsato: a singer and an actor whose company was recently declared bankrupt. He started out singing in Italian, before he turned to Dutch.

There are also a few famous Dutch artists who perform in English:

Anouk: a female singer born in The Hague, Anouk moved for a stint to the US to try and make a name for herself there but her success was limited. She is however a very popular artiest in the Netherlands.

Krezip: a band from Tilburg, this group split in 2009 following huge success and 12 years together.

Tiesto: a DJ and record producer from Breda, he has been named the world's number 1 DJ on more than one occasion. He also performed live at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Athens and enjoys international success.

Do any of these artists resonate with you? What Dutch music do you listen to?

Dutch Eurovision: What you get when you cross Father Abraham and an Organ

The Dutch Eurovision song contest entry was off to a bad start before a note was even sung. It was composed by Pierre Kartner, better known as he of Father Abraham and the Smurf song fame. Not a good start if you want to be taken seriously, in my humble opinion. The title of the song also left a little to be desired: "Ik ben verliefd Sha-La-Lie". The fact that it was sung in Dutch also threatened to get the rest of Europe drifting off once the singing began.

Unfortunately for Sieneke, the eighteen year old singer (or trainee hairdresser) from Nijmegen, the song not only lived up to expectations by failing to take the Netherlands through to the final, it also managed to provide the rest of Europe with ammunition to ridicule the Dutch.

Here are some of the comments on Twitter following the Dutch performance on Thursday night:

@MrsStephenFry: Oh dear. The television's slow again. It seems to be showing the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. (apologies to Dutch followers x).

@musjes: "Iets te weinig internationale uitstraling" Ja. DUH! Zelfs in Nederland zou alleen Volendam gestemd hebben op Sieneke.

For the non-Dutch speakers - following a comment by the Dutch TV Eurovision song contest presenter that the entry didn't have enough international appeal, @musjes declared that even in the Netherlands only Volendam would have voted for Sieneke.

And the most retweeted comment came from @_irissa_:Dear other people in Europe. We’re sorry for sending Sieneke. We didn’t want to send her, but Papa Smurf made us.

For those of you that did not have the pleasure of seeing Thursday's show you can watch the song being performed below:

The barrel organ which took centre stage behind Sieneke also became a topic of amusement amongst TV viewers. Supposedly a symbol of Dutch culture, it was something that failed to appeal to the rest of Europe (and I suspect most of the Netherlands too).

Cornald Maas, the Dutch equivalent of Terry Wogan, who presents the Eurovision show in the Netherlands, put the failure of the song to reach the final down to the presence of the barrel organ (amongst other things). Twitter lit up with comments about putting the organ on Marktplaats and what a shame it was there was no one walking around with a tin to collect money. Not a bad idea in hindsight - it could have helped Sieneke get by as she considers her next career move.....