What do you think of "Hemel en aarde" (Netherlands 1998)?

[ESC94]

Hello everyone,

in 1998 were represented in Birmingham by Edsilia Rombley and her song "Hemel en aarde". In the end she finished fourth with 150 points. What do you think about the song??

I really love this song. It´s very groovy and just makes me happy for some reason. Edsilia is also a great singer who sold this song perfectly on stage.

The final placement was very deserved, the song is behind "Arcade" and "Calm After the Storm" my third favouite entry from . I listen to it very often and can´t wait to see Edsilia as host in Rotterdam.

 

[Citelis]

I like it too but not as much as you say!

 

[Ana Raquel]

A BOP

1998 is one of my least favorite years but is one of the few entries that I truly enjoy

 

[dungyllan1804]

The live performance is exceptional, it's my favourite act of that year. But I do think it was important for the contest that Diva won.

 

[JedBeyer]

I like it a lot, she gave it a lot of energy and it's a beautifully composed song. I also like how they had the balls to open the song with a direct reference to the Netherlands, gives it an extra jolt in the context of Eurovision. In my personal opinion it should've come third after Diva in first and Dis Oui in second.

While checking its placement I realised something; 1998 is the final year that no non-English speaking country performed their entry in English.

 

[Neo]

Yeah I liked it too, but slightly boring and annoying voice pulled down the score. What really stuck in the mind was the dance moves of the male backup dancer with the spiky hair.

 

[Ianp16]

Love this entry. Edsilia's charisma sold the song!

 

[midnightsun]

Yes, I love it too!

 

[tomos2019]

I do of course love that song, but then for me even after watching every contest nothing really compares to Birmingham 1998 in general and I'm probably way too obsessed with it, it's just that there were so little songs I really disliked when I first discovered that year(I am a fan of 20th century ESC more than current, the 00s contests I suppose were admittedly still a bit different to now exactly but for me the winners from that decade didn't really stand out to me whereas 80s winners I am massive on) and also being partly Welsh and having lived in both the Midlands and South West I admit I might have a bit of a regional bias!