The Netherlands has won the Eurovision Song Contest! Not only did Duncan Laurence take first place in the Dutch Top 40 this weekend, he also managed to outperform forty of his competitors in Tel Aviv last night. 37 years ago we last saw the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in first place in the Top 40. You can find out who is in the top 4.

Arcade van Duncan Laurence is the sixth song in history to achieve first place in both the Eurovision Song Contest and the Dutch Top 40. This first happened in 1967 when Puppet On A String won Sandie Shaw festival and three weeks later also hit number 1 in the Top 40. A year later, the UK entry again hit number 1 in the Top 40, but at the Eurovision Song Contest in London, Congratulations by CliffRichard with a difference of one point behind La La La van Massiel. Five years later, history would repeat itself. Cliff Richard represented his country again, but this time he finished in third place with Power To All Our Friends. As a consolation, he scored his second number 1 hit in the Netherlands.

Below we look at the four previous Eurovision Song Contest entries that took first place in the Eurovision Song Contest and the Dutch Top 40.

1 EIN BISSCHIEDEN FRIEDEN- Nicole (Germany, 1982)
The points tally in 1982 was anything but interesting. It was clear from the start that Germany would win. This ultimately occurred with 161 points, 78.9% of the maximum possible number of points. 14 out of 17 judges placed Germany in the top 3 that year. Only ‘little brothers’ the Netherlands (6 points), Austria (1 point) and Luxembourg (0 points) have fewer remaining points than their neighbors. Responsible for this victory was 17-year-old singer Nicole with her message of peace Ein Bißchen Frieden. The girl with the white guitar also released a Dutch version of her song. The two performances together were at number 1 in the Top 40 for four weeks after her Eurovision entry scored Nicole four more Top 40 songs with Dutch translations from the original German repertoire.

2 BLOW YOUR MIND- Bucks Fizz (UK, 1981)
British group Money sizzles specially composed to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1981, the foursome represented their countries during the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin. The vocals are not very strong, but their song Making Your Mind Up is very catchy. Plus, Bucks Fizz has a great gimmick. During the line “But if you want to see more”, the two boys pull up the girl’s long skirt and continue singing in the miniskirt. The score remained exciting until the end and in the end England won with 136 points, four points ahead of Germany. After their Eurovision Song Contest entry, Bucks Fizz reached the Top 40 four more times, the same as Nicole. One of the songs was The Land Of Make Believe, which, like Making Your Mind Up, reached first place.

3 SAVE YOUR KISS FOR ME- Brotherjhood Of Man (United Kingdom, 1976)
In 1976, the Eurovision Song Contest was held in The Hague. England emerged victorious with 164 points. Although this was a monster score (80.4% of the maximum possible points), the first half score was still quite interesting. Many judges put England and France in the top 3 positions. Midway through the match, England broke away from their French rivals and eventually collected another 17 points. Other participants were far below that figure. The winning song is Save Your Kisses For Me by Human Fraternity. This is not an unfamiliar name to Top 40 fans, as six months prior to their participation at Eurovision, the group had scored a number 2 hit with Kiss Me, Kiss Your Baby. After they entered Eurovision, the foursome scored five more hits, including the top 10 hits My Sweet Rosalie, Oh Boy and Angelo.

4 APRES TOI- Vicky Leandros (Luxembourg 1972)
No, the winners of the Eurovision Song Contest of 1975 and 1974 were not included in this top 4. In 1975 Teach festival with Ding-A-Dong, but in the Top 40 the Dutch group did not go beyond third place. Waterloo from ABBA, the legendary 1974 winner, reached second place in the Top 40, but was missed out on the top spot by The Cats’ Be My Day. However, ABBA would more than make up for the damage between 1976 and 1982 with eight hits reaching first place in the Dutch Top 40. Après Toi from Vicky Leandros achieved double gold at the Eurovision Song Contest and in the Top 40 in 1972. This Luxembourg entry held the record for the most successful Eurovision Song Contest entry in the Top 40 for many years, until this record was broken in 2012 by Loreen’s Euphoria. At that time, she remained in second place, the same as her Swedish colleagues from ABBA, but remained in the top 10 for eighteen weeks. Vicky Leandros had a long Top 40 career after she entered Eurovision. It was not until 1982, ten years after his participation in Eurovision, that he scored his thirteenth and final Top 40 hit with the Dutch song Verloren zijn We Niet.

Conclusion: if your Eurovision winning song also reaches first place in the Top 40, then you can expect a great career in the charts. Good to know for our Duncan!

(Photo: BSR Agency)

(19/05/2019)