Dutch Courage

As if we hadn’t already heard enough information about Eurovision 2007 while still in 2006, the Netherlands exclusively revealed this week who will represent them. And what a surprise they had in store. We thought last year was the year of the comeback as Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Israel, Malta and Greece all had artists representing them that had tried their luck at Eurovision before. This year, although we already know the Georgian, Irish, Moldovan and Swiss entrants, no returning artist had been selected.

Until now.

Ladies and gents, it’s time to welcome back that Dutch Eurovision heroine… Edisila Rombley!!!

This is very exciting although I’m not sure many of you will know who she is, so I’ll fill you in…

Edisilia (see the lovely pic) represented the Netherlands back in 1998, turning in a fabulous performance of the poppy Hemel En Aarde. It was a very strong song and could well have won had ’98 not been such a strong year. In the end, it finished 4th, although it did score a whopping 150 points and finished just 22 points behind Dana International and the winning Diva. Edisilia did however make a brief appearance giving the Dutch votes in the 1999 contest whilst quite obviously tipsy, one of the many comical moments of the ’99 show, but that’s another story for another time.

Anyway, emphasis must be paid though to just how good Hemel En Aarde actually was. It was hip, happening, and very modern, and it’s aged rather well. In fact, Sir Terry even questioned whether it was ‘too good for Eurovision? What a thought…’. What a thought, indeed!

So it’s no surprise that with not a lot of luck coming Netherlands’ way of recent times that they opted to bring back their most successful participant since their last win in 1975. Whether she’ll be able to get given a song as spot on as Hemel En Aarde is questionable, but she’s a great performer with a great voice and a very sunny personality. She’ll certainly have the fans on her side.

Welcome back Edsilia, our first returnee of the 2007 season! And, going on recent years, probably not the last…