Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. The Netherlands was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[19]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. The Netherlands was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from Moldova and preceding the entry from Australia.^[20]

The two semi-finals and the final was broadcast in the Netherlands on NPO 1 with commentary by Cornald Maas and Jan Smit.^[21] The Dutch spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Dutch jury during the final, was 2017 Dutch Eurovision entrant O'G3NE.

Waylon took part in technical rehearsals on 1 and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May. This included the jury show on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[22]

The Dutch performance featured Waylon wearing a black cowboy hat and cheetah print jacket and performing at a microphone stand on a podium together with four dancers. Waylon and three of the dancers also played a guitar in the beginning with one of them on drums, and one of the dancers .^[23][24][25] The four dancers that joined Waylon were Brandon Likiyo, Pierre Anganda, Pieter Likiyo and Roger Makadi, while an off-stage backing vocalists was also featured: Justin Pieplenbosch.^[26] The staging director for the performance was Hans Pannecoucke, who worked with the Dutch entrants between 2014 and 2016 in a similar role.^[27]

It was later revealed that Netherlands had placed seventh in the second semi-final, receiving a total of 174 points, 47 points from the televoting and 127 points from the juries.^[28]

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. The Netherlands was drawn to compete in the second half.^[29] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. The Netherlands was subsequently placed to perform in position 23, following the entry from Israel and before the entry from Ireland.

Waylon once again took part in dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Waylon performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 12 May. The Netherlands placed eighteenth in the final, scoring 121 points: 32 points from the televoting and 89 points from the juries.^[30]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to the Netherlands and awarded by the Netherlands in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members comprised the Dutch jury:^[33]

• Sharon den Adel (jury chairperson) – singer
• Arno Krabman – producer, songwriter
• Robert Ester – music and content director
• Rick Vol – composer, writer, manager
• Lesley van der Aa – singer

Detailed voting results from the Netherlands (Semi-final 2)^[31]

R/O	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Krabman	R. Ester	S. den Adel	R. Vol	L. van der Aa	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	2	2	4	3	2	2	10	2	10
02	Romania	8	11	10	16	3	9	2	14
03	Serbia	9	10	7	12	11	11		10	1
04	San Marino	12	13	16	11	14	13		17
05	Denmark	13	14	15	10	15	14		1	12
06	Russia	16	16	14	14	16	16		16
07	Moldova	6	4	17	5	9	8	3	4	7
08	Netherlands
09	Australia	7	6	5	9	6	7	4	7	4
10	Georgia	17	15	13	17	17	17		12
11	Poland	3	5	9	8	5	6	5	6	5
12	Malta	10	12	12	6	10	10	1	13
13	Hungary	15	9	8	15	12	12		3	8
14	Latvia	5	8	2	4	4	4	7	11
15	Sweden	1	1	3	2	1	1	12	5	6
16	Montenegro	14	17	11	13	13	15		15
17	Slovenia	4	3	1	7	7	3	8	8	3
18	Ukraine	11	7	6	1	8	5	6	9	2

Detailed voting results from the Netherlands (Final)^[32]

R/O	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Krabman	R. Ester	S. den Adel	R. Vol	L. van der Aa	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	17	13	9	7	17	14		23
02	Spain	18	11	6	24	6	11		22
03	Slovenia	8	6	8	14	16	10	1	25
04	Lithuania	6	1	2	11	5	4	7	19
05	Austria	3	8	4	3	2	2	10	8	3
06	Estonia	7	4	10	6	12	7	4	11
07	Norway	12	7	17	9	4	8	3	10	1
08	Portugal	16	10	3	23	11	9	2	21
09	United Kingdom	15	24	20	17	9	18		16
10	Serbia	21	22	19	16	21	24		17
11	Germany	4	3	1	4	1	1	12	1	12
12	Albania	14	19	11	13	14	16		20
13	France	13	18	21	22	15	21		14
14	Czech Republic	19	16	22	10	13	17		5	6
15	Denmark	25	23	23	18	25	25		3	8
16	Australia	11	15	12	12	7	13		15
17	Finland	22	21	14	20	23	22		24
18	Bulgaria	9	12	5	15	19	12		18
19	Moldova	10	17	25	21	20	20		12
20	Sweden	2	5	13	2	3	3	8	13
21	Hungary	24	20	15	19	24	23		9	2
22	Israel	5	9	16	1	18	6	5	2	10
23	Netherlands
24	Ireland	20	14	24	8	8	15		7	4
25	Cyprus	1	2	18	5	10	5	6	6	5
26	Italy	23	25	7	25	22	19		4	7

Media related to Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 at Wikimedia Commons

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