The Netherlands will take part in Eurovision Song Contest again
The Netherlands will once again take part in the Eurovision Song Contest from 2027 onwards with a Dutch participant. An independent team of experts will carefully guide the process surrounding the act. The coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals and final will be provided by NOS.
Last month, public broadcaster AVROTROS decided to withdraw as the broadcaster responsible for the Dutch entry, due to the sensitivities surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest, thereby handing responsibility for the event back to the coordinating public broadcasting organization NPO. Those sensitivities have not gone away. Over the past period, the NPO has held extensive discussions with the EBU about this.
In the meantime, the EBU has taken important steps regarding the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest. These changes came about partly thanks to critical public broadcasters that engaged in the debate. In the discussions that followed AVROTROS's withdrawal, we agreed with the EBU to once again place the original starting point of the festival at the heart of the event.
Jet de Ranitz, Chair of the Board at NPO: "We understand that taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest gives rise to mixed feelings in the Netherlands. We have explicitly asked the EBU to make the unifying character of the contest a central part of the event once again, in recognition of a time of geopolitical unrest, war and polarisation. The Song Contest was founded to bring the people of Europe together after the Second World War. We are seeking that connection again now, by taking account of what is happening in the world, but by making room for a conversation about it. To help shape and carry forward that direction, we as Dutch public broadcasting want to be part of the Eurovision Song Contest again. That way we can truly live up to 'United by Music' together."
Two separate responsabilities
Where previously a single broadcaster was responsible for both the entry and the coverage, Dutch public broadcasting will separate these tasks from 2027 onwards. The Dutch entry will become a joint project of the public broadcasters, in the same way that events such as 3FM Serious Request and the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000 are organised in The Netherlands, coordinated by NPO. An independent team will be set up to take responsibility for selecting and supporting the participating act, drawing as much as possible on existing expertise within the public broadcasting system.
The NPO has asked the NOS to – as it did last year – provide the preview, the report, and the commentary. This is explicitly separated from responsibility for the entry itself, so that NOS can continue to report on the Song Contest and the surrounding events independently and impartially. This also aligns with its legal duty to report on major (international) events.
Jurre Bosman, Director of Media at NPO: "It is important that, as a public broadcaster, we remain part of this unifying European event at this moment in particular, an event that wants to take serious steps towards a format that better reflects the times we live in. It also means we are responding to the wishes of hundreds of thousands of Dutch Eurovision fans, and that is ultimately what we are here for as a public broadcaster."
The Eurovision Song Contest will take place on 11 and 13 May 2027 (semi-finals) and 15 May 2027 (final) in the Bulgarian city of Burgas, and will be broadcast on NPO Start and NPO 1. The Dutch public broadcaster will announce at a later date who will represent the Netherlands.
More information in English about the Dutch public broadcasting system can be found on our website: https://npo.nl/overnpo/organisatie-npo/about-npo