Wouter Hardy (; born 3 April 1991), also known by his stage name HRDY, is a Dutch musician, songwriter and producer. He is known for his work with, among others,

Duncan Laurence Duncan de Moor (; born 11 April 1994), known professionally as Duncan Laurence, is a Dutch singer and songwriter. He represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with his song " Arcade" and went on to win the competition, g ...

Gjon's Tears Gjon Muharremaj (; born 29 June 1998), known professionally as Gjon's Tears or Kev Bush due to his performance style being similar to "Kate Bush", is a Swiss singer and songwriter. He was scheduled to represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Son ...

and Alika Milova.

Career

Hardy was born and raised in

Boxtel Boxtel () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands. The name derives from Buchestelle and is presumably a combination of 'stelle' (Dutch for stable, safe place) and (deer) deer, buck.2019. Etymolog ...

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

. After graduating from the Rock City Institute in

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

, he moved to

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

to study at the Codarts University for the Arts. During his studies, he joined the band of

Sharon Kovacs Sharon Kovacs (born 15 April 1990), known professionally as Kovacs, is a Dutch singer from Baarlo. Career Kovacs studied at Rock City Institute, a vocational school in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. She graduated in 2013. In 2014 she worked with ...

, with whom he toured through Europe until 2016. In late 2016, Hardy met

through

Sony Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

. Together, they worked on the song "

Arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

" for two years. Prior to its public release, the song was internally selected by the Dutch broadcaster

AVROTROS AVROTROS () is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster that is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. It was founded in 2014 as the result of a merger between the Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) and the TROS, Televisie Radio Omro ...

to represent the Netherlands in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

. "Arcade" went on to win the competition, giving the Netherlands its first Eurovision win since 1975, and became one of the most successful Eurovision Song Contest winning entries on streaming platforms and international charts in recent history. Following the cancellation of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song " Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. This w ...

, Hardy was invited to participate in a songwriting camp in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

to help write a new song for the Swiss representative

for the 2021 edition. Together with Gjon's Tears and the Belgian songwriter Nina Sampermans, he wrote the song "Ground Zero", which was later translated into French as " Tout l'univers". Out of five finalists, a professional jury ultimately chose this song to represent

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. At Eurovision, the entry finished in third place with 432 points, Switzerland's best placement since 1993. In December 2022, it was announced that Hardy and Sampermans will be participating in the 2023 edition of , the Estonian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, as co-writers of the entry "

Bridges A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somet ...

" by Alika. "Bridges" eventually won the competition and thus became the Estonian entry for the , where it finished in eighth place with 168 points.

Discography

Extended plays

Singles

Songwriting discography

Eurovision Song Contest entries

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hardy, Wouter 1991 births 21st-century Dutch composers 21st-century Dutch male musicians Codarts University for the Arts alumni Academic staff of Codarts University for the Arts Dutch composers Dutch keyboardists Dutch pianists Dutch record producers Dutch male songwriters Dutch songwriters Dutch trumpeters Eurovision Song Contest-winning songwriters Living people Music directors Musicians from North Brabant People from Boxtel Sound designers