The Netherlands THE NETHERLANDS 2018 - Waylon - Outlaw In 'Em

[mauve]

Regardless if you like this genre of music or not, you have to agree this dude has a great voice with a lot of soul in it.

True!

 

[ES2011]

He has a little outlaw In 'Em

This might be the new 'Yolo', another excuse for people to justify acting like a complete ass

 

[Himan]

But I'm not fully agreeing with you. He has the right not to speak with this papers. He must concentrate on the song, and as an artist you don't want to much annoying things on your head, and papers here, or actually these papers were very annoying. They even burn them immediately to the ground now, while they should just apologize and go on. It's not about politics, it's about fun and music and the papers should know that. They can write what they want though.

 

[BMX]

Good luck to Waylon tonight. I hope we will surprise and qualify for the final.

 

[mauve]

Would like his staging without the dancers more, but nevertheless he has a great performance. good luck to Waylon!

 

[Church]

By far the best song in the competition. Makes me almost feel bad that Rybak is gonna take it this year.

 

[mauve]

By far the best song in the competition. Makes me almost feel bad that Rybak is gonna take it this year.

Cheeky person! I wouldn't mind though!

 

[A-lister]

Still a bottom 5 song for me

Not so sure this will go well with many Europeans as well, this is extremely western oriented (heck it's not even European, rather wannabe American), so I wouldn't expect Eastern and Southern Europeans in particular to be running to their phones voting for this. I still think it'll be more of a jury sweetheart than a televoting favorite, if televoters want something rock influenced, I think they'd rather support the Hungarian entry because I do think there is an audience for rock oriented entries in Eurovision, but then I think they'll go for the more hardcore stuff that is popular in many European countries and not something you could hear on some local country channel in Alabama.

 

[DutchESC]

It´s ridiculous how many comments I´ve seen about Waylon having a fake American accent, wannabe American song etc. I normally don´t like to go into discussions like this, but I felt that I had to comment because I am a big fan of Waylon and want to defend him. First of all I wish everyone could´ve seen the documentary that was on the Dutch TV about his life and career, but because it´s in Dutch, below a brief summary.

Willem Bijkerk (Waylon´s real name) lived in America for a period of time when he was 21 years old and worked with his idol Waylon Jennings (one of the biggest, if not the biggest, country star in the US, Google him, he is amazing!), who was the one who discovered Willen Bijkerk and wanted him to come to America and work with him. Waylon learned a great deal about country music during his time with Waylon Jennings. Sadly Waylon Jennings passed away during the time that Willem was in the US. At this point Willem Bijkerk came back to the Netherlands and he decided to use Waylon as his stagename as homage to Waylon Jennings, his idol and mentor. During this time he also worked with several other big country stars like Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. In 2009 Motown (record label with signed artists like Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye etc.) signed Waylon to their label.

Of course music is a matter of taste, but no one can deny that he is a true and incredibly talented artist. He is by far the most talented in this years competition, I have not Googled it, but I am assured none of the contestants is signed to Motown or had a mentor as big as Waylon Jennings. Comments like ´he has a fake American accent' / ´it´s wannabe American´ are an utter disgrace to a high level artist like Waylon, if Waylon Jennings would read/hear that he would, as we say in Dutch, zich omkeren in zijn graf. (turn around in his grave)

Lastly I would like to add (I think it is already quite clear, lol) that as a Dutch person I am incredibly proud that he is representing my country, I don´t care if he qualifies or not, I will be proud anyway. He always delivers and I will for sure have goosebumps during his peformance.

 

[A-lister]

It´s ridiculous how many comments I´ve seen about Waylon having a fake American accent, wannabe American song etc. I normally don´t like to go into discussions like this, but I felt that I had to comment because I am a big fan of Waylon and want to defend him. First of all I wish everyone could´ve seen the documentary that was on the Dutch TV about his life and career, but because it´s in Dutch, below a brief summary.

Willem Bijkerk (Waylon´s real name) lived in America for a period of time when he was 21 years old and worked with his idol Waylon Jennings (one of the biggest, if not the biggest, country star in the US), who was the one who discovered Willen Bijkerk and wanted him to come to America and work with him. Waylon learned a great deal about country music during his time with Waylon Jennings. Sadly Waylon Jennings passed away during the time that Willem was in the US. At this point Willem Bijkerk came back to the Netherlands and he decided to use Waylon as his stagename as homage to Waylon Jennings, his idol and mentor. During this time he also worked with several other big country stars like Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. In 2009 Motown (record label with signed artists like Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye etc.) signed Waylon to their label.

Of course music is a matter of taste, but no one can deny that he is a true and incredibly talented artist. He is by far the most talented in this years competition, I have not Googled it, but I am assured none of the contestants is signed to Motown or had a mentor as big as Waylon Jennings. Comments like ´he has a fake American accent' / ´it´s wannabe American´ are an utter disgrace to a high level artist like Waylon, if Waylon Jennings would read/hear that he would, as we say in Dutch, zich omkeren in zijn graf.

Lastly I would like to add (I think it is already quite clear, lol) that as a Dutch person I am incredibly proud that he is representing my country, I don´t care if he qualifies or not, I will be proud anyway. He always delivers and I will for sure have goosebumps during his peformance.

Taste in music differs, and he is obviously a big Country fan as well and if that's what he's passionate about and that's the music he wants to make, then i'd say good for him and applaud him for staying true to what he wants to do in life and in his career , however it doesn't make this entry less "wannabe American" though, because country music (and various sub-genres) is pretty much an American phenomena and he is not American just because he lived there for a short while and worked with Americans, nor is Netherlands a state in the US and whether one likes this song or not or the genre in general, it's still disconnected to Europe. Of course music is universal and you will find fans of different type of music all over the world, I don't mean that a European can't like country music or pursue a career doing country inspired music, nor did I say that it should have no place in Eurovision, since I think Eurovision should be diverse, but if you look at Eurovision as a concept of representing your country in music, this has obviously little to do with Dutch music or European musical culture in general, that was my only point and the fact that this genre isn't widely popular in Europe, is the reason why I don't expect it to do too well with televoters. This is no disrespect towards the guy or his chosen path though, nor against him as an entrant for Netherlands, I personally don't like the entry though but that's not what my comment was about.

 

[DutchESC]

Taste in music differs, and he is obviously a big Country fan as well and if that's what he's passionate about and that's the music he wants to make, then i'd say good for him and applaud him for staying true to what he wants to do in life and in his career , however it doesn't make this entry less "wannabe American" though, because country music (and various sub-genres) is pretty much an American phenomena and he is not American just because he lived there for a short while and worked with Americans, nor is Netherlands a state in the US and whether one likes this song or not or the genre in general, it's still disconnected to Europe. Of course music is universal and you will find fans of different type of music all over the world, I don't mean that a European can't like country music or pursue a career doing country inspired music, nor did I say that it should have no place in Eurovision, since I think Eurovision should be diverse, but if you look at Eurovision as a concept of representing your country in music, this has obviously little to do with Dutch music or European musical culture in general, that was my only point and the fact that this genre isn't widely popular in Europe, is the reason why I don't expect it to do too well with televoters. This is no disrespect towards the guy or his chosen path though, nor against him as an entrant for Netherlands, I personally don't like the entry though but that's not what my comment was about.

So you are basically saying that pretty much everything is wannabe; because pop music also started in the US and UK. The way you think is very narrow minded and contradicting, sorry.

 

[A-lister]

So you are basically saying that pretty much everything is wannabe; because pop music also started in the US and UK. The way you think is very narrow minded and contradicting, sorry.

You clearly didn't get my point. Now I don't want to go into music history, but there are those scholars saying Pop music stems from Rock music that stems from African-American Rhythm & Blues, so with that logic it all goes back to Africa then and neither US or UK

But Pop has become universal, today the biggest producers of Pop often come from Sweden for instance and different countries are producing Pop that are specific for their regions and taste, this entry IS very American however, it is in no way compromising itself to sound "Dutch" or European. It's not narrow-mindness, that's just how I see it. I don't say it has to be a bad thing, you're reading it wrongly. I only say why I don't think this will go down too well with many of the European televoters, it's simply too foreign and alien for what's generally popular in different European regions.

I'm sorry, but fans need to stop being so defensive and actually get constructive points.

 

[mauve]

Love the song, but the staging is just ... aaahhh! Bad!

 

[Franzilein]

God damn, Waylon. In Germany we call somebody like you "geile Sau"

 

[Gitte]

I like the staging? And the dancers were Belgian by the way.

 

[digitaldude]

Waylon performed better than most singers, he should qualify, kinda risky to predict though considering his genre of music.

 

[muisjep]

OMG. ESC is always bullying us with that last qualifier... Hahaha

 

[Franzilein]

Die geile Sau qualified! So happy

 

[BMX]

EAT THAT haters!! He was the best singer of the evening. Ofcourse its not a singing competition, but with that voice and performance you deserve to qualify. I'm so SO proud.

 

[Fluke]

Sort of split about it, i think the song loses a lot from being shortened, and the dancers are kind of cool but the combination of it all kinda doesn't make sense in my eyes, and i see many others feel the same.