No rainbow-coloured Pride flags, but encouraging cries with which proud fans of Teddy Scholten waved her goodbye at Schiphol airport in 1959 towards the Eurovision Song Contest in Cannes. And… she won with the catchy song Een Beetje, a composition by Dick Schallies with lyrics by Willy van Hemert. Many readers will still be able to sing along to the chorus: ‘Een beetje, verliefd was je wel meer, meneer, dat weet je! Je hart kwam weleens meer op een ideetje. Dat speet je, maar ach weetje, soms vergeet je wel een beetje gauw je eedje van trouw’.
In 1959, only eleven countries participated, but that number has now tripled. In Basel – in addition to the Netherlands with the song ‘C’est la Vie‘ by Claude – no fewer than 37 countries are participating, including several non-European countries. The condition for participation is not that a country is European, but that it must be a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes the festival annually. The final is on Saturday, May 17. Source: Max Magazine
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