Netherlands: Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper selected for Eurovision 2023

Netherlands: Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper selected for Eurovision 2023
Tuesday, 01 November 2022

  • Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper have been internally selected to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool in May 2023.

    New month new Eurovision 2023 hopeful on bOard, as the Dutch national broadcaster has announced their Eurovision 2023 representatives! Mia Nicolai & Dion Cooper will have the honor to defend the Dutch colors at the 67th Eurovision in the UK next year. 

    The two young artists were brought together by Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence and songwriter Jordan Garfield and the four of them wrote a song that won the entire selection committee's preference. The two of them are also on the entry's creative team. 

     

    A few words for Mia 

    Mia, is 26 year old, with her whole live flooded with music. From the age of three she has been taking violin and piano lessons and from home she has received a very creative artistic upbringing, with drama, ballet, music and storytelling.

    In her debut single 'Set Me Free', travel and her need for ultimate freedom were the two elements in the frontline. In November 2020 she dropped her second single 'Mutual Needs' which was immediately picked up internationally by a premiere in America on the famous Zane Lowe Radio show. Mia finds her inspiration in artists such as David Bowie. But especially in the free expression of creativity and the combination and diversity art forms.

     

    A few words for Dion

    Dion, is 28 years old and had the ambition of making music from early times. He began playing the guitar at the age of fifteen and since then it's his other half in his music journey. In the following years he started singing and writing his own music and in 2021 he dropped his first EP 'Too Young Too Dumb', followed by the single 'Fire' which he releases together with Maxine and within a few months almost a million streams. he has also been teaming up with Duncan Laurence in the production of Blue jeans, a song with which Dion followed Laurence on his Small town boy tour as supporting  act.

    He describes it himself as classic rock meets singer songwriter, or Bryan Adams meets Harry Styles.

     

    The two of them say on their Eurovision assignment: 

    "The Eurovision Song Contest is the stage where people can see what you have to bring as an artist. After all these years of hard work on translating our feelings into music, this is a great opportunity to tell our story on such a large scale. It feels fantastic and still a bit unreal that the selection committee of AVROTROS has chosen our song, but we are ready to bring something positive to Europe."

     

    The Netherlands in Eurovision

    The Netherlands has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 times since making its debut as one of the seven countries at the first contest in 1956, and has missed only four contests so far (1985, 1991, 1995 and 2002).

    The Netherlands has won the contest four times, with Corry Brokken in 1957, Teddy Scholten in 1959, Lenny Kuhr in a four-way tie in 1969 and Teach-In in 1975,  The country has achieved some remarkable results in the past finishing 4th with Sandra & Andres (1972), 3rd with Mouth & MacNeal (1974), 5th with Maggie MacNeal (1980), 5th with Marcha (1987) and fourth with Edsilia Rombley (1998). Its worst results were in 1958, 1962, 1963, 1968, when it finished last and in 2011 when ending up last in the semifinal.

    Eurovision 2020 was set to take place in Rotterdam  after Duncan Lawrence’s Eurovision 2019 victory in Tel Aviv, with Jeangu Macrooy set to perform 'Grow" for the country. However the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic and never had the chance to perform on home soil. Last year Rotterdam made it happen with the host nation being represented by last year's hopeful, Jeangu Macrooy who sang 'Birth of a new age' which finished 23rd in the overall score with only 11 points. 

    This year S10 was internally selected to represent the country with her song 'De Diepte' which after qualifying to the final achieved to finish 11th in the Grand final.

     

    News Source/Image: AVROTROS