The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 has come to an exciting end tonight. In EXPO Tel Aviv, The Netherlands were crowned the winners of the 64th Eurovision song Contest. Duncan Laurence emerged victorious with his song “Arcade”.
Tonight’s results
The Netherlands emerged victorious tonight with 492 points, beating Italy, who finish second with 465 for “Soldi” by Mahmood. The podium was completed by Russia’s Sergey Lazarev, who finish in third place for the second time.
The big surprise of the night were the jury results for North Macedonia. Tamara Todevska brings her country their first ever top ten placing after finishing a mighty second with the juries. Sweden’s John Lundvik won the jury vote, with Duncan Laurence finishing third there. The gap wasn’t big, though: Sweden scored 239 points, North Macedonia 233 and the Netherlands 231.
In televoting, we also see a surprising winner: Norway! KEiiNO picked up 291 points, beating Duncan Laurence’s 261 points. However, the combined score for The Netherlands of 492 brought them their first victory in 44 years.
A rising star
Duncan Laurence is a rising star in the music business. He took part in The Voice of Holland a couple of years ago. He was in the team of Ilse DeLange, who finished second at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014.
The 25 year old then shifted his attention to the Rock Academy in Tilburg to become a better songwriter and singer. He graduated last year. Through Dropbox, he shared his new songs with his mentor Ilse DeLange. She sent “Arcade” to the Eurovision selection committee at AVROTROS. We now all know where that ended…
“Arcade” becomes the first Eurovision winner for The Netherlands since 1975. The highly successful black & white era of the contest brought the country two victories in 1957 and 1959, with a further victory in 1969 (shared with three other countries). Teach-In then were the last winners in 1975. The Netherlands struggled at the contest for years, not even making the final once between 2005 and 2012. Since Anouk participated in 2013, the country made the final six out of seven times.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima have congratulated Duncan on his victory. Rutte mentioned on Twitter how he’s already given the delegation a call.
