It’s only three years since the Netherlands won the contest, after a gap of 44 years, and drew level with France, Luxembourg and the UK on wins (5). Their entry this year, artist S10 and her song “De diepte”, shows an intent not to rest on their laurels. “De diepte” is their first Dutch language song in over a decade, but all the signs are that this will far outperform the last Dutch song attempt in 2010. How much better will a Dutch language song fare in 2022?

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S10 is a well-established artist in the Netherlands. Her name is Stien den Hollander, and in Dutch her professional name is a play on her first name. For Eurovision purposes though, she has said she is happy for S10 to be pronounced as “S Ten” rather than “steen” (which is how her first name is pronounced). She’s a singer, rapper and songwriter who has been active since 2016, and released her first album in 2019. “De diepte” is cowritten by Stien.

There have definitely been a fair few “sadboi” songs at Eurovision – several this year, and of course, contest winning “Arcade” is within that genre too. S10 is bringing us the “sadgirl” genre with the melancholic and reflective “De diepte” – and even without knowing Dutch, you can easily tell that feel from the song. S10 may have hip hop and rapper in her musical repertoire, but she’s delivering a haunting vocal in her Eurovision song.

This is a really beautiful song and I’m really pleased we are getting such a quality song in Dutch. There have been some criticism that there is a lot of “dadadas” and “ooh-oohs” but I think they work well and give a bit of a hook for non-Dutch speakers too so you get that key Eurovision mix of both being a great quality song combined with something catchy.

“De diepte” really should give the Nethrlands another very good result. It’s had a great response from the fandom, and her live vocals have impressed. I don’t know if it’s enough for the Netherlands to win again, and so soon after their 2019 triumph, but I’d expect this to be in the grand final and certainly be in the contenders for a top placings finish. Still could be a dark horse for the win, and S10 is definitely in the mix.

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Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest