The Netherlands was represented by

Saskia and Serge Saskia & Serge are a Dutch vocal duo consisting of singer Trudy van den Berg (born 23 April 1947, Grootebroek) and singer-guitarist Ruud Schaap (born 22 March 1946, Den Helder). They are known for their participation in the 1971 Eurovision Song ...

, with the song "Tijd", at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 3 April in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

. The song was the winner of the Dutch national final for the contest, held on 24 February. Saskia and Serge were selected internally by broadcaster NOS as the 1971 performers; it is widely thought that this was done in response to the 1970 preselection in which the couple's song "Spinnewiel" was placed runner-up by the juries despite being the overwhelming favourite of the Dutch public.

Before Eurovision

Nationaal Songfestival 1971

The national final was held on 24 February 1971 at the NOS studios in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hil ...

, hosted by Willy Dobbe. Saskia and Serge performed six songs and the winner was chosen by postcard voting; again it is believed that this method was employed so that there could be no complaints that the public's choice had been overruled by a handful of jury members.

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Saskia and Serge performed 14th in the running order, following

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and preceding

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

. Saskia's performance was hampered by a microphone problem on the opening lines of the song, where her voice was inaudible and the audience and TV viewers heard loud

audio feedback Audio feedback (also known as acoustic feedback, simply as feedback) is a positive feedback situation which may occur when an acoustic path exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for exam ...

. At the close of voting "Tijd" had received 85 points, placing the Netherlands joint 6th (with Sweden) of the 18 entries. The Dutch conductor at the contest was

Dolf van der Linden David Gijsbert van der Linden (22 June 1915 – 30 January 1999), known as Dolf van der Linden, was a Dutch conductor of popular music with a reputation which extended beyond the borders of the Netherlands. Biography David Gijsbert van der Linde ...

for the 13th and last time (in total, he conducted 18 songs, including few entries from other countries that did not send their own conductors in the contests hosted by the Netherlands). Each country nominated two jury members, one below the age of 25 and the other above, who voted for their respective country by giving between one and five points to each song, except that representing their own country. All jury members were colocated at the venue in Dublin, and were brought on stage during the voting sequence to present their points. One of the Dutch jury members was Jos Cleber.

References

External links

Dutch Preselection 1971
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1971

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1971

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...