Netherlands: S10 has a story to share with the Eurovision audience

Her enthusiasm beamed out behind the scenes as she exited the stage after rehearsing her song De Diepte for the first time in Turin. And S10, the moniker of Stien den Hollander, a Dutch singer, rapper and songwriter, couldn’t wait to speak out about her experience.

I’ve been working the last couple of months and taking myself really seriously. And it’s really big that I can be on a stage like this. Really, I’ve never experienced something in my life like this. Today I really felt comfortable. I loved it so much. I’m going to enjoy every moment of this.

📺 Watch: S10 – Adem Je In (Eurovision House Party)

Now that she’s here, the young artist (just 21 years of age, despite the millions of streams and numerous awards she’s got to her name) is going to soak up every minor detail, not letting a second go to waste. And it’s not just her own experience that she’s looking forward to lots; she’s also eagerly anticipating spending time in the company of her contemporaries, too.

I think this will give me the greatest adventure of my life. And I love adventures, big or small. And I think this is going to be really good for me, to be in a place like this. I am really excited about all the artists, too. It’s really weird participating in Eurovision because you want to get to know the artists and find out how they feel and why they do what they do, too.

And her favourite of the other songs that De Diepte is competing against? She namechecks Italy’s entry for its beauty, Albania’s Sekret for its performer, and Moldova’s song for its fun energy.

As well as keeping one eye on her artist colleagues, S10 of course retains the majority of her focus for the audience at home; those of us who will be tuning in to see De Diepte performed on the night of the First Semi Final. S10 herself already has her own idea of how her number might translate

I just want to let the audience see a little bit of my soul, and let them feel my emotion. I want them to feel my story, and I want them to feel their own story, too. And then we can be together for three minutes.

The fact that she’s singing her song in her native Dutch isn’t seen as a barrier by S10. The very notion of language being a barrier at all, just isn’t something she ever considers.

I don’t know. I just write songs and I sing them and they are really close to me. I just think that if you put your emotion into it, whatever language you do it in, it will come across. I write in Dutch as I can express myself the best in my own language. So I never really thought of writing my Eurovision song in English.

📺 Watch: S10 – De Diepte (Official Music Video)

The process of songwriting is something that the artist has experimented with since she was a teenager. And it seems that now she has honed a particular method which works best for her. And, which it would appear, is also going down very well with her veritable army of new fans from outside the Dutch borders.

I always write sentences throughout the day; when I think about a cool sentence or a cool word, I just write it down. So I have thousands of sentences and words in my phone. So, then I go to the studio and I have these sentences and then the music. That’s really important; the production. And then most of the time the music really fits one particular sentence I will have, and then I just write the whole song.

The song she has composed for the Netherlands’ particicipation at the Eurovision Song Contest is one in which she sings frankly about the subject of mental health. It’s a topic that she is proud to be bringing to the Eurovision stage; a stage that she views as being the perfect platform to highlight the range of emotions that artists can implement into their music.

I think every kind of subject has a place on the Eurovision stage. A sad song can belong here, also a protest song, a song about being gay, a song about love, a party song. Eurovision is one of the biggest stages, where you are able to do what you want.

To see S10 take to one of the biggest stages, join us for the First Semi Final of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest, on Tuesday 10 May.

📺 Watch: All 40 Songs of the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest

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