Finishing in 7th place in our Aussievision Team rankings of Junior Eurovision 2019 is The Netherlands!
In total seven out of the nine jurors put this in their top 10, you can get our individual rankings and comments below (as well as song details).
The entry
Matheu - Dans Met Jou (Dance with You)
2019 sees 13-year-old singer and actor Matheu Hinzen representing The Netherlands after winning the Dutch national selection with “Dans Met Jou” (Dance with You). Sung partly in Dutch and English, the catchy number beat three other acts, winning top marks from the televote and both children’s and adult juries in the competition.
Matheu is quite an accomplished performer having appeared in musicals and acted in several television and film productions since the age of 7. With The Netherlands hosting the main event in 2020, can Matheu take out a double Eurovision win for the Dutch and take the junior crown?
Aussievision Team Rankings
Kyriakos - 1st
Dale - 3rd
Guy - 3rd
Aaron - 8th
Emma - 8th
Mike - 9th
Liv - 10th
Fleur - 15th
Alyce - 16th
The comments
The Dutch ‘Justin Bieber’ (from the “Baby” days) presents well with his shiny jacket, which better be part of his contest performance and his charismatic appeal. It is a super catchy bop and my winner to take out the contest. ~ Kyriakos
I really shouldn't like this but I really do. In a ballad-heavy year this is some fun bubble-gum pop, with a catchy chorus and well performed from the young Dutch performer. His national final performance was good and with a bit of tightening up this could do very well with online vote in particular ~ Dale
Matheu brings the Justin Bieber vibes to the competition but this is exactly what appeals to the JESC demographic. I originally had this ranked higher but found I liked it less the more I listened to it. Should be a dynamic performance based on the national final though. ~ Emma
Someone did not receive Greta Thunberg’s memo. Everyone else is at a climate change rally and Matheu just wants to hightail it into town and dance with the young ladies. Although this seems to be a recurring theme with JESC Dutch songs. To me, it just sounds generic and simplistic. I think the competition has moved on from this. He has charisma, I’ll give him that. ~ Fleur
A really good fun upbeat song from Netherlands this year. Matheu may not be the strongest vocalist in the competition this year, but with this song he has on of the catchiest songs. ~ Mike
The obligatory cutesy-dancing-boy-group of 2019! Easy hook to remember and can see the young-ens appreciating this entry. The song is reasonably basic – but in the national final they turned it into a fun number with good live performances which hopefully they will bring to JESC. Could easily fall flat if the staging isn’t right. ~ Liv
This is definitely a change of tune as compared to last year. I do like this song, but the only problem I have with it is that it’s too catchy, and not the good kind of catchy. It’s the kind of song I don’t want stuck in my head because I find it annoyingly catchy. ~Alyce
Good catchy song. Needs to tone it down a little in the video. ~ Guy
This is a pleasant dance tune, and it doesn’t try to be anything more than that. His vocal is good too, and it’s a well-produced song. It might get a bit lost if there is a poor running order for it, but the online voting being available for days ahead of time will negate this effect.~ Aaron
The Netherlands at Junior Eurovision
The Netherlands has a strong association with Junior Eurovision. One of only two countries to participate every year since the inaugural competition in 2003, they were also the first country to host the event twice (2007 – Rotterdam and 2012 – Amsterdam). In fact, the 2007 competition in Rotterdam was held at Ahoy Arena, the chosen venue for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest!
In 2009, they had their first and only victory to date (Ralf Mackenbach – Click Clack). However it is 2007 participants Lisa, Amy and Shelley who have perhaps gone on to have the biggest success. Performing as OG3NE, they finished 11th at Eurovision in 2017.