The Netherlands participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 and selected their entry in the national final Nationaal Songfestival 2012; which was organised by the Dutch broadcaster TROS. Joan Franka represented the Netherlands with the song "You and Me", which failed to qualify from the second semi-final, achieving 15th place with 35 points.[1][2]
Nationaal Songfestival 2012 was the national final that selected the Dutch entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.[3] The competition, produced by TROS together with Big Brother and The Voice creator John de Mol, consisted of a final on 26 February 2012 which took place at the Studio 24 in Hilversum, hosted by Jan Smit and was broadcast on TROS and Nederland 1 as well as streamed online via the broadcaster's website songfestival.nl and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[4][5] The national final was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter on 26 February 2012, and was watched by 2.3 million viewers in the Netherlands with a market share of 30.6%, making it the most watched Nationaal Songfestival in recent years.[6]
Format[]
Six songs competed in the final where the winner was determined over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the six participating entries competed against each other in three duels. The winner of each duel proceeded to the superfinal based on the combination of votes from public televoting and a five-member jury panel. In the superfinal, the winner was selected as well by the combination of votes from the public and the jury panel. Each juror distributed 10 points among the songs in each duel and in the superfinal, while viewers were able to vote via telephone and SMS. An international jury panel consisting of 100 members from all participating countries at the 2012 contest also voted in both rounds but only acted as an advisory role.[7]
Artists and composers were able to submit their entries between 6 July 2011 and 30 September 2011 through a huge suitcase installed at the courtyard of the TROS headquarters. Applicants were able to submit either lyrics, (sheet) music, the name of an artist, a complete audio production or a combination thereof, and were required to give their reasons for entering the competition into a camera built in the suitcase.[8] 491 entries were received by the broadcaster at the closing of the deadline. A six-member selection committee consisting of Peter Kuipers, John de Mol, Daniël Dekker, André de Raad, Natascha Lammers and Cornald Maas selected six artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The six competing entries were announced on 5 January 2012, while the allocation draw for the competing entries in each duel took place on 19 February 2012 during the RTL 4 programme Life4You.[9][10][11]
The final took place on 26 February 2012.[12] In the first round, six acts competed against each other in three duels and the votes of a five-member jury (50%) and public televoting (50%) determined the winners of each duel that proceeded to the superfinal: "We Can Overcome" performed by Pearl Jozefzoon, "You and Me" performed by Joan Franka and "Take Me As I Am" performed by Ivan Peroti. In the superfinal, "Take Me As I Am" performed by Ivan Peroti was the winner of the advisory international jury vote, while the winner, "You and Me" performed by Joan Franka, was selected by the public and jury vote.
The Netherlands competed in the second semi-final on 24 May.
They came 15th in the Second Semi Final with 35 points, and so did not qualify for the Final, the eighth consecutive time that Netherlands had failed to qualify. [13] The Netherlands received 51 points from the public in this semi-final, placing 10th, and received 31 points from the jury vote, placing 16th.[14]
Voting[]
Points awarded to the Netherlands[]
Points awarded to the Netherlands (Semi-final 2)[15]
Netherlands
Germany
United Kingdom
Slovenia
Sweden
