| Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1956 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) | |||
| Country |  Netherlands | |||
| Selection process | Het Europese Song Festival – Nationale finale | |||
| Selection date | 24 April 1956 | |||
| Competing entries | ||||
| First entry | ||||
| Song | "De vogels van Holland" | |||
| Artist | Jetty Paerl | |||
| Songwriters |
| |||
| Second entry | ||||
| Song | "Voorgoed voorbij" | |||
| Artist | Corry Brokken | |||
| Songwriter | Jelle de Vries | |||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | N/A | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Netherlands was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 1956 with two songs: "De vogels van Holland", composed by Cor Lemaire, with lyrics byAnnie M. G. Schmidt, and performed byJetty Paerl; and "Voorgoed voorbij", written by Jelle de Vries, and performed byCorry Brokken. The Dutch participating broadcaster,Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS), held a national final to select its two entries in the contest. "De vogels van Holland" was the first entry performed in theEurovision Song Contest, so it was also the first entry from the Netherlands and the first entry in Dutch in the contest.
For its national selection,Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) invited a number of songwriters to send in entries.[1] From the submitted entries, a jury consisting ofHugo de Groot [nl], Harm Smedes andMax Dendermonde [nl], chose eight songs for the national final.[2]Corry Brokken,Jetty Paerl, and Bert Visser were chosen separately by NTS to sing the entries.[1]
The final was held at theAVRO Studios inHilversum on 24 April 1956 at 21:45CET and lasted about 45 minutes.[3][4][5] It was broadcast onNTS with the titleHet Europese Song Festival – Nationale finale, and also in Belgium onNIR.[6][7] It was produced by Piet de Nuyl jr. and directed byGer Lugtenburg [nl].[6]Karin Kraaykamp [nl] presented the program.[8] Two songs were sung by Bert Visser; Corry Brokken and Jetty Paerl sang three songs each.[5] The artists were accompanied by theMetropole Orkest under the direction ofDolf van der Linden.[1]
The songs were ranked by postcard voting.[3] Television viewers should send in their postcards before 1 May 1956, containing one vote for their favourite song.[7] The postcards with votes for the song which should place first, participated also in a lottery: The prize was a journey to the final in Lugano.[2][9] The results were announced on 5 May 1956 in a television show held at the Minerva Theater inHeemstede.[2][10] In total, 6,694 postcards were received.[11]
The top two songs were "Voorgoed voorbij", written and composed byJelle de Vries [nl], and "De vogels van Holland", written byAnnie M. G. Schmidt and composed byCor Lemaire [nl].[12][11] "'t is lente", written byAlexander Pola [nl] and composed byElse van Epen [nl], came third.[11]
| R/O | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Votes | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corry Brokken | "Ik zei ja" | Jurriaan Andriessen | 478 | 5 |
| 2 | Jetty Paerl | "De vogels van Holland"[a] | 1,530 | 2 | |
| 3 | Bert Visser | "Gina mia" | Jelle de Vries [nl] | 116 | 7 |
| 4 | Jetty Paerl | "De telefoon" | 438 | 6 | |
| 5 | Corry Brokken | "Voorgoed voorbij" | Jelle de Vries [nl] | 1,854 | 1 |
| 6 | Bert Visser | "Meisje" | Jurriaan Andriessen | 34 | 8 |
| 7 | Corry Brokken | "'t Is lente" | 1,210 | 3 | |
| 8 | Jetty Paerl | "Mei in Parijs" | 1,034 | 4 |
There were seven participating countries, and each was drawn to perform two songs in the same order via two rounds, with Netherlands performing first in each round, making "De vogels van Holland" the first song performed in theEurovision Song Contest history.[18][19]
Dolf van der Linden, who was originally selected to lead the orchestra for the Dutch entries, was unable to attend the contest.[2][8] Therefore, both of the Dutch entries were conducted at the contest by the musical directorFernando Paggi.[20]
Each country nominated two jury members who voted for their respective country by giving between one and ten points to each song, including those representing their own country.[21] All jury members were colocated in a separate room in the venue in Lugano and followed the contest via a television set.[22] The Dutch jury members wereLia Dorana andGer Lugtenburg [nl].[23]
The placements of the Dutch entries are not known since the full results of the contest were not revealed and have not been retained by the EBU.[20][24]
Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was televised in the Netherlands onNTS with commentary by Piet te Nuyl Jr.[25]