Eurovision: The Netherlands

Eurovision: Second Semi Final
The Netherlands
Waylon
“Outlaw In ‘Em”

Waylon (Willem Bijkerk) was born in 1980. When he was 18 years old he received a phone call from his hero, Waylon Jennings, who invited him to come and work with him in Nashville. Unfortunately the country singer died in 2001, after which Waylon returned to The Netherlands.

Waylon came to people’s attention during his Hollands Got Talent performance in 2008. One year later he became the first Dutch artist to sign to the Motown Label. Wicked Way was his first single on his debut album Wicked Ways. Both were extremely successful and won several awards.

In 2011 Waylon released his second album, After All, and later he was voted Best Vocalist by 3FM. While working on his third album word got out that Waylon and Ilse DeLange had formed a one-off band, The Common Linnets, and were going to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest. It became a reality, and in 2014 The Common Linnets placed second in the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen and sold over half a million copies of their album worldwide. In that same year Waylon’s third solo album Heaven After Midnight was released and went straight to number one in the Dutch charts.