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Live: Dutch results at 22:20 CET..!

01 February 2009 at 03:25 CET

Gordon, Rene Froger and Jeroen van der Boom, better known as The Toppers, picked six songs out of more than 300 entries to perform at the Nationaal Songfestival 2009. The trio has been selected internally to represent the Netherlands at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

Initially, the group was made up of three extremely successful singers; Rene Froger, Gordon and Gerard Joling. The latter represented the Netherlands at the contest in 1988 with Shangri La, and was eager to return to the Eurovision stage. However, a public argument between Joling and Gordon made him decide to leave the group. Joling was replaced by Jeroen van der Boom.

The songs

  1. Our Night
  2. Angel Of The Light
  3. Everybody Can Be A Star
  4. Three Is The Magic Number
  5. No One Loves Me Like You
  6. Shine

Angel Of The Light was co-written by Bruce R. F. Smith, who also co-wrote Glennis Grace's My Impossible Dream. The Dutch dream of qualifying for the Final of the Eurovision Song Contest didn't come true back in 2005. One of the people behind Shine co-wrote Hind's Your Heart Belongs To Me. With the exception of Everybody Can Be A Star, which was submitted by a DJ of a popular radio station in the Netherlands, none of the songs has been publically performed or played on radio.

What to expect?

The Dutch national final starts at approximately 20:20 CET and will be streamed live by Eurovision.tv from the Dutch media capital of Hilversum. The presentation of the six songs, hosted by Jack van Gelder, will end at 21:20 CET. After an hour, at 22:20, the show will continue and the results will be announced. According to an interview with the trio in the Dutch newspaper AD, we can look forward to some "outrageous costumes"..!

The final decision will be made by a professional jury (30%) and televoters (70%). One of the jury members is Getty Kaspers, lead singer of the band Teach-In. They won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1975 with Ding-a-Dong, the last Dutch victory to date.

The Netherlands will take part in the second Semi-Final of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, on the 14th of May in Moscow, Russia.

UPDATE: Stay tuned for the results, as the jury and televoters at home make up their minds. The results show, to be streamed by Eurovision.tv as well, will kick off at 22:20 CET. Meanwhile, we're curious to hear which song you believe The Toppers should bring to Moscow. Leave your comment by clicking on the red button!