Nos will announce the participants of Songfestival 2003 on January 16th, two weeks after the closing date for submitting songs. The only problem with this is that some dutch artists have already announced that they will be taking part in Songfestival 2003 which is making dutch fans of the eurovision disappointed saying that they have to wait six weeks to get this information confirmed. All candidates who have sent in entries to NOS will be notified by post whether they have been successful or not. The dutch preselctions will take place on the 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd of February with the final taking place on March 1st in the Ahoy venue in Rotterdam. 8 of the 32 winning songs from the previous rounds will take part in the final
Paul de Leeuw who presented the dutch national final for many years will send a song this year, as an attempt to get into the Eurovision Songcontest. De Leeuw will record the song next week, the composers will be Eric Dikeb and Ad van Olm. For many years already, it's been a big wish of De Leeuw to participate in the contest. The dutch radio stations 3FM-dj Dikeb called the singer Monday morning during the live-transmission of the programme "Stenders vroeg", whether he had advice for the song that Dikeb has composed especially for the coming songcontest. De Leeuw immediately was so enthusiastic that he offered to sing the song by himself. The song is for now only to be heard in English and has a worktitle "Blue skies are for free". It's a song for 2 female and 2 male singers. The people who will be singing along with Paul, aren't known yet.
In average around 100 / 200 songs are being sent to the preselections for the song contest in The Netherlands. Between November and March there'll be 4 preselections where a selection will be made for the Dutch final. This one will take place 1st March in Ahoy in Rotterdam. The song that'll be chosen taht evening, will represent the Netherlands on 24th May in Latvia during the eurovision songcontest.
It´ s too long ago……!!!
( this title refers to the first line of the last Dutch winning ESC song “ Is het lang gelegen?” which means: “Is it long ago?”)
(The Netherlands and ESC 2003)
To prevent another low score at ESC, NOS has contacted 1000 composers in a very early stage to ask them to enter a song for the pre-selection of the Dutch Finals in 2003. Also other composers, that have not been invited can join. For the first time a financial gratification has been agreed for all the composers who´ s songs will enter the final on March 1st in Rotterdam. This new policy is meant to make composers enthusiastic to enter the competition. The composers all received an empty CD on which they can “burn” their composition. The song that will be chosen on March 1st in Rotterdam will represent The Netherlands in 2003.
The contacting of all these musicians has started in the week before the ESC final in Tallinn. The Netherlands was not there because “Out on my own” ended shared 18th/19th position in Copenhagen and therefore the Netherlands were relegated. The Netherlands will be participating in 2003 and goes for the top position. From all songs that will be entered 32 will be chosen by a professional jury to participate in the semi-finals. These semi´s will be organised by TROS television. This semi-final system is new to the Netherlands, but proved very successful in Belgium and Sweden. An early performance will give the performer more chances to get more experience on stage. The semi ´s will also attract more attention from the public and will hold it´ s attention towards the final..Details on the semi´s are not yet known. The final is in Rotterdam Ahoy and will be presented by comical actor Loes Luca. (she is really very funny!) Paul the Leeuw that presented the final for the past years is not interested in doing this in future.