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| Duncan Laurence in Eurovision, 2019 |
This is the last day of The Grandma with The Watsons. They have been aisled during lots of weeks and now it is time to go out, with all the precautions and respect for others, and continue with their lives.
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Duncan de Moor (born 11 April 1994), professionally known as Duncan Laurence, is a Dutch singer-songwriter.
He began his music career in 2014 and became a semi-finalist in the fifth season of The Voice of Holland.
Laurence represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song Arcade and went on to win the competition, giving the Netherlands its first Eurovision win since 1975.
Born in Spijkenisse, Laurence grew up in Hellevoetsluis. He has been writing his own songs since he was 13 years old, as an escape from being bullied. He started his musical career at the Rock Academy in Tilburg, playing in a number of school bands, including his own, The Slick and Suited.
Formed in 2013, the band went on to perform at Eurosonic Noorderslag. In an Instagram post in February 2020, he revealed he had oxygen deprivation at birth, and thus had a motor disorder affect his right hand.
More information: Duncan Laurence Official Site
Laurence participated in the fifth season of The Voice of Holland, choosing Ilse DeLange as his coach. He advanced to the Cross Battles/Semi Finals before being eliminated.
In March 2016, he decided to stop as lead singer of The Slick. Laurence graduated from the Rock Academy in 2017. He, with Jihad Rahmouni, wrote the song Closer on K-pop duo TVXQ's 2018 album New Chapter #1: The Chance of Love.
In January 2019, Laurence was internally selected to represent The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. He was nominated by Ilse DeLange, with whom Laurence still had contact after The Voice. His song Arcade was first revealed in March 2019.
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| Duncan Laurence won Eurovision in 2019 |
He is the fifth Dutch entrant to ever win the competition, and the first since Teach-In won the Eurovision Song Contest 1975 with the song Ding-a-dong. Laurence will tour The Netherlands and Europe in late 2019 with one concert also scheduled for Amsterdam in March 2020.
On 10 June 2019, he performed at the 50th anniversary Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, the first Dutch Eurovision winner to perform at the event. He replaced Swedish duo First Aid Kit on the bill, who dropped out due to health reasons.
On 23 October 2019, Laurence released his second single Love Don't Hate It. It was also announced that he signed a deal with Capitol Records.
In 2020, the artists' entrance at Rotterdam Ahoy was re-named Door Duncan in his honor.
On 29 April 2020, Laurence announced the release of his first EP, Worlds on Fire, it was released on 13 May 2020 and includes the singles Arcade, Love Don't Hate It and Someone Else.
More information: Twitter
Arcade is an English-language song by Dutch singer Duncan Laurence. It represented The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel, which it won. The song was released as a digital download on 7 March 2019. The song was written by Duncan Laurence, Joel Sjöö, Wouter Hardy and Will Knox.
After the complete line-up of songs was announced, Arcade was the odds' favourite to win Eurovision, and had remained so until the contest ended. An acoustic version of the song was released on 19 July 2019.
In February 2020, Arcade won an Edison Award for best pop song of the year.
In May 2020, Arcade was included on Duncan's debut extended play Worlds on Fire.
In February 2020, Arcade won an Edison Award for best pop song of the year.
In May 2020, Arcade was included on Duncan's debut extended play Worlds on Fire.
Duncan Laurence wrote the song while he attended the Tilburg Rock Academy. He worked on the song for over two years, predominantly while collaborating with Wouter Hardy, a former band member with Kovacs.
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| Duncan Laurence won Eurovision in 2019 |
The namesake lyric Smalltown boy in a big arcade refers to his experience, being from a small town, as a Rock Academy freshman entering the summer fair of Tilburg, the largest in The Netherlands. Throughout the song, the fair and its arcade games are used as a metaphor for love, addiction and gambling with relationships.
Arcade is inspired by film soundtracks and consists of 165 tracks. The song opens with four chords played on piano, accompanied by a simple piano riff and overdubbed vocals. The triple metre verses contrast with the 4/4 time signature of the rest of the song, giving it a distinct sound. Heavy emphasis is put on Duncan's vocals. After the soft verses, in which he expresses his sadness and vulnerability, the chorus kicks in with heavy drums, accompanied with a choir of backing vocals, to enhance the lyrics' expressions of anger and frustration.
On 28 January 2019, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. The Netherlands were placed into the second semi-final, held on 16 May 2019, and were scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
More information: Instagram
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the show's producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. The Netherlands performed from starting position 16 and qualified for the final.
The performance of the song in Tel Aviv featured Duncan Laurence sitting behind an electric grand piano, with three backing vocalists supporting him offstage.
DeLange and the creative team decided that Duncan sit behind a piano on stage, because, him being a singer-songwriter, they wanted to portray him on stage as a musician. Surrounding Duncan and his piano, smoke and water effects, reminiscent of the official music video, and lighting effects accompanied the performance. Reactions to the simplistic performance were mixed.
In the Grand Final, Duncan Laurence was drawn to perform in the first half of the show, on spot 12. Arcade received 12 points from six national juries, and twice from national audiences. The Netherlands were closely followed by North Macedonia, Sweden and Italy during the jury vote and the latter during the televoting sequence, but ended up winning the Eurovision Song Contest with 498 points. It was the first Eurovision victory for the country since 1975, when Teach-In won for The Netherlands with Ding-a-dong.
More information: Nolala
I'm afraid of all I am
My mind feels like a foreign land
Silence ringing inside my head
Please, carry me, carry me, carry me home.
Duncan Laurence
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