Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997
The Netherlands was represented by five-piece female group Mrs. Einstein, with the song '"Niemand heeft nog tijd", at the 1997 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Dublin on 3 May. The song was chosen at the Dutch national final on 23 February.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1997 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Artist: Internal selection Song: Nationaal Songfestival 1997 | |||
| Selection date(s) | 23 February 1997 | |||
| Selected entrant | Mrs. Einstein | |||
| Selected song | "Niemand heeft nog tijd" | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 22nd=, 5 points | |||
| Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Before Eurovision
Nationaal Songfestival 1997
The final took place on 23 February at the Mercanti Plaza in Amsterdam, hosted by Bart Peeters and Joop van Zijl. All six songs were performed by Mrs. Einstein, with the winner being decided by a 50/50 split between televoting and juries in the twelve Dutch provinces, who awarded votes as 10-7-5-3-2-1.
The voting was extremely close, with "Niemand heeft nog tijd" winning by just a 2-point margin over "Toen de aarde stilstond" after both songs received an identical score from the televote. Third-placed song "Dat liefde zo moet zijn" also finished only 6 points adrift and was the top choice of five of the juries, against three in favour of "Niemand heeft nog tijd" and "Toen de aarde stilstond".[1]
| Final – 23 February 1997 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song (English translation) | Songwriter(s) | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | "Ik dou alsof" (I pretend) | Erwin de Graaf | 29 | 24 | 53 | 6 |
| 2 | "Dat liefde zo moet zijn" (That's the way love is) | Hans van Hemert, Claudia Robbens | 76 | 77 | 153 | 3 |
| 3 | "Samen sterk" (Strong together) | Alan Michael, Tjeerd van Zanen | 30 | 27 | 57 | 5 |
| 4 | "Niemand heeft nog tijd" (Nobody has time) | Ed Hooijmans | 77 | 82 | 159 | 1 |
| 5 | "Toen de aarde stilstond" (When the earth stopped turning) | Guus Willemse | 75 | 82 | 157 | 2 |
| 6 | "Laat het los" (Let it go) | Jerry van der Wolf | 49 | 44 | 93 | 4 |
| Detailed Regional Jury Votes | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song | Friesland | Groningen | Drenthe | Overijssel | Gelderland | Utrecht | Flevoland | North Holland |
South Holland |
Zeeland | North Brabant |
Limburg | Total |
| 1 | "Ik dou alsof" | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 53 |
| 2 | "Dat liefde zo moet zijn" | 10 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 153 |
| 3 | "Samen sterk" | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 57 |
| 4 | "Niemand heeft nog tijd" | 7 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 159 |
| 5 | "Toen de aarde stilstond" | 3 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 157 |
| 6 | "Laat het los" | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 93 |
At Eurovision
On the night of the final Mrs. Einstein performed 8th in the running order, following Switzerland and preceding Italy. At the close of voting "Niemand heeft nog tijd" had received only 5 points (4 from Malta and 1 from Turkey), placing the Netherlands joint 22nd (with Switzerland) of the 25 entries, ahead only of the nul-points entries from Norway and Portugal. The Dutch jury awarded its 12 points to contest winners the United Kingdom.[2]
The Dutch conductor at the contest was Dick Bakker.
Voting
Points awarded to Netherlands
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
