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The Netherlands wins Eurovision 2019

Bookies favourite Duncan Laurence's stirring ballad "Arcade" wins in Tel Aviv.

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Bookies favourite The Netherlands has won the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with Duncan Laurence’s stirring ballad “Arcade.”

The Netherlands scored 492 points.

“This is to music first!” said Duncan Laurence.

Second place went to Italy on 465 points. In third place was Russia on 369 points.

Australia’s Kate Miller-Heidke was note perfect, drawing 285 points to finish 9th.

Australia was 6th after jury votes were delivered. Sweden’s John Lundvik won the jury vote.

Norway’s 16 year old KEiINO led in the televoting while Germany got 0,

United Kingdom came last. Again. Sorry Brexit…..

Kate Miller-Heidke said: “Representing Australia at Eurovision has been a dream come true and to place ninth is beyond belief. Thank you to Australian voters for giving me the opportunity and to Europe for embracing Zero Gravity and three flying warrior queens in space.

“I love that Eurovision gives artists permission to be unique – and sometimes outright bonkers (in the best possible way). I’ve always been interested in breaking down traditional genre barriers to try and embrace what makes me different as an artist. It’s been an incredible ride and I’ve felt the support every step of the way.”

SBS Commissioning Editor Josh Martin said:“This is one for the history books! For years to come, we will remember the iconic image of Kate Miller-Heidke soaring above the Eurovision stage on a five metre bendy pole – an image that has gone around the world.

“She is a true artist and all of us at SBS, and around Australia, are so proud of her. To be awarded this incredible result is truly humbling, and cements our 35 year love affair with Eurovision. Kate has literally elevated what a Eurovision performance can do and proved the power of this event to inspire joy, wonder and tears of happiness.”

Australian Head of Delegation Paul Clarke said: “It’s a brilliant result for Kate when you think about her achievement. In her first singing contest, she created an atmosphere so joyous for 200 million viewers by singing a song about leaving depression behind. Only KMH could pull that off. She was an undiscovered superstar – now she’s one step closer. It’s so great to see Australia back in the top ten on the biggest music stage in the world.”

Australian viewers gave 12 points to Norway followed by Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Italy, Malta, France, Czech Republic and Azerbaijan.

Tel Aviv lit up the stage with 26 acts and guest performers from previous years and 2018 winner Netta.

Madonna was also an interval act but sang flat throughout Like a Prayer. But she drew controversy when her  backing dancers were seen wearing Israeli and Palestinian flags on their backs, breaching the EBU rules.

Iceland also made a political statement with “Palestine” on their flag from the green room.

In 2020 the event will be held in The Netherlands, for the first time in 44 years.

SBS repeats the broadcast tonight at 8:30pm hosted by Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst.

This post updates.

9 Responses

  1. Hi Bogues, I’m Glad that you enjoyed the show,
    I will kindly remind you and others that TV Tonight stated on articles for Eurovision 2019 multiple times: “NB: TV Tonight will be publishing Live results following early morning broadcasts”.
    All Eurovision Shows are broadcasted at 9PM in Europe (GMT+1). This time zone includes Germany, France, Spain, Italy and other mayor Western European Countries.
    The running order posts on TV Tonight, clearly show that the Live Show is at 5AM (Australian Eastern Time). It has always been shown Live at 5AM on SBS and on the official YouTube page, so that Australia can vote in the same tele-voting block as Europe.
    Additionally: ABC Breakfast; 7’s Sunrise; & 9’s Today, all announce the winner after the broadcast ended at 7AM and 9AM respectively.
    On another note:
    Yeah, Madonna’s auto tune was not working. Did you catch the dig by The Netherlands…

    1. Time for the UK to break away from Eurovision and let each of the four countries decide if they want to take part. (Scotland, Wales etc) It would be interesting to see how that would pan out.

  4. We will never win it. Too political. I thought Kate was outstanding and should have finished higher. Joel and Myf did a very good and humorous job of commentating.

    1. Well she came 1st in Semi Final 1 (obviously people are voting for Australia) and on the night was still ahead of all the semi final 1 contestants.

      None the less it was an underwhelming eurovision, but that made the scoring interesting as it was literally between so many countries. And the reactions from some performers was priceless.

    2. Austria, Portugal, Israel and now Netherlands aren’ part of any ‘political’ voting blocs and have all won this decade. Bring the right song in the right year and stage it well and anyone can win.

    3. That’s a bit harsh. Let’s remember she was only a mid-ranked song entering Eurovision, and she got hyped well out of proportion by being a standout in the poor first semi. Then there’s the notorious oi oi oi Australian obsession of winning. If Australia were in the second semi and more humble, it’s another decent song, that’s all, and that was proved in the grand final when seven SF2 songs finished ahead of any SF1 ones, the first was Australia in 9th. In retrospect, she finished about right. If ESC was so political, Netherlands would not have won. We ease the gas on winning, and sit back and simply enjoy ESC as a music festival like we did before we were invited.

  5. Queue all the people that will complain that TVT ruined the result on a tv site covering an event that has been shown on Australia TV 🙁

    Well done Katie, you did very well. Totally agree that Madonna’s performance was very underwhelming. It wasn’t Meatloaf bad, but wasn’t much better either.

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