AVROTROS have announced that Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen will be taking over as the Dutch Head of Delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest beginning with Malmö 2024.
After a difficult year for the Netherlands, culminating in their first non-qualification since 2015, Dutch Broadcatser, AVROTROS have appointed Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen as the new Head of Delegation for the Netherlands.
Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen should be a familiar name to Eurovision fans having undertaken the role of Head of Contest at Rotterdam 2020, Rotterdam 2021, Turin 2022 and Liverpool 2023. Amongst other-things, van de Nieuwenhuijzen was ultimately responsible for the running orders for all of those contests. It seems that for 2024, SVT will have to choose someone different, as van de Nieuwenhuijzen is required back at home.
I am proud of AVROTROS’ request to lead this challenging and unique project. I am looking forward to using the knowledge and experience I have gained in recent years at the Eurovision Song Contest to create a strong and convincing entry for the Netherlands.
Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen, Head of Delegation for the Netherlands
All of this comes following revelations and allegations earlier in the year about the organisation of the Dutch delegation and their selection of Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper for Liverpool 2023. Europe Shine A Light and Rotterdam 2021 host, Jan Smit, alleged that their selection wasn’t what the selection committee, that he was a member of, had voted for and others have since accused members of the delegation of abusive behaviour. There have been consistent calls since all this for the Netherlands to change their approach with many citing the reintroduction of a televised National Selection.
In our opinion, Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen is the perfect candidate to lead the project organization of the Dutch delegation. With his many years of experience as Head of Contest at the Eurovision Song Contest, I hand over my role as chairman of the selection committee to him with great confidence.
Eric van Stade, Former Head of Selection
It seems Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen’s appointment is a form of damage control. He’s one of AVROTROS’ most trusted Eurovision executives and having worked on three consecutive contests, with three different host broadcasters, he has a wealth of experience that most others wouldn’t have.
Van de Nieuwenhuijzen’s first announcement has been that, despite calls for a National Selection, the Netherlands will be sticking with an Internal Selection, something they’ve utilised to great success since 2013.
However, van de Nieuwenhuijzen has announced some changes such as the fact that songwriters can submit proposals without having an artist attached to the song; giving freedom for the selection committee to choose their own artist for a songwriter submission. The full rules follow:
- Any language
- 3 minute duration
- Maximum of 3 different entries
- Not released publicly before 1st September 2023
- Up to 6 vocalists
- Live vocals
- No live instruments
- Availability from September 2023 to May 2024
- Must be 16 or over on 15th April 2024
Van de Nieuwenhuijzen have said that they intend to come to a decision by December. Likely the artist will be announced close to this date, with the song release following in March 2024.
