The organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have named the co-directors of next year’s contest. NPO have revealed that Marnix Kaart and Marc Pos will take on the director’s job for 2020. They will be working together with the Core Team, led by Sietse Bakker, and Creative Advisor Cornald Maas.
Visuals and structure
The directors will have two jobs to take of during the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam next year. They have decided to both take on one of the jobs, whilst also working together closely to produce a harmonious show.
Marnix Kaart will be responsible for the individual acts. He will make sure each act comes to life on the screen by implementing the correct visuals, such as camera angles and lights. With over 40 countries expected to participate in Rotterdam, Kaart will have his work cut out to provide the correct set up for each of the acts.
With Kaart focusing on the acts themselves, Marc Pos is responsible for the structure of the shows and the blocks between the performances. This may include the postcards, but that is not certain as of yet. It will include the show blocks, such as interval acts. Another job Pos will have to take care of is the set design.
The duo will head to Ahoy Rotterdam several times a week for meetings until about December. After that, they’re expected to go there more and more, with Pos saying they’ll “almost live there for the last seven weeks before the Eurovision Song Contest”.
Marnix Kaart: “A dream and an honour”
When asked about his new job, Marnix Kaart said it was a “dream and an honour” to be named director of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The 52 year old has years of experience with big televised events. Several concerts, such as Vrienden van Amstel Live and Toppers in Concert, have been directed by him. Despite their limited success at Eurovision, Toppers in Concert still sells out the Johan Cruijff Arena (50,000 people) year after year, so it’s a big gig. At the same venue, he was also responsible for directing the Armin van Buuren concert a few years ago.
In terms of television, Marnix Kaart has been the longtime director of Holland’s Got Talent, the Dutch franchise of the Got Talent format. He has also worked on other shows, such as So You Think You Can Dance and Life4You. Kaart has spoken out about his happiness when the organisers chose Rotterdam for Eurovision 2020. He has worked with the venue before and sees the possibilities for a television spectacle like Eurovision. About Ahoy, he said:
Ahoy was my preferred venue. I know it well, so I know what’s possible there. The height of the ceiling is especially great to work with. [We couldn’t vote,] but we gave our advice. We will be involved with everything the participating countries come up with. Some countries, like Sweden, will come to us with a complete scenario and plan for lights, others will definitely need our support more.
Marnix Kaart to NOS
Marc Pos: “I will sink my teeth into it”
50 year old Marc Pos has been present in the Dutch television business for years. He has recently started his own company to invent new television formats. He currently only has a couple of titles to his name, such as Celebrity Pottery and the Curling Quiz. Pos’s biggest claims to fame in the country are directing the first series of Idols back in 2003 and coming up with the format for De Wereld Draait Door. The talkshow, aired around 19:00 CET on weekdays, has been the stage to reveal the Dutch entries for Eurovision in 2014, 2018 and 2019.
Marc Pos, originating from Den Bosch, one of the candidate cities to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, is also happy with Rotterdam getting to host the event. He wants the opening to be “legendary”, he told NOS. Music will play an important role in the opening. One of Pos’s objectives for the contest is to make sure it’s visible that it’s a Dutch made product, as he wants to show the world what the Netherlands are made of. At the bottom of this article, you can see a clip of an opening Marc Pos created for the Televizier Ring Gala in 2014, one of the most important Dutch TV award shows.
Are you looking forward to the ideas Marnix Kaart and Marc Pos are looking to implement for 2020? Let us know!
