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Today Dutch broadcaster TROS invited the national press for a meeting about the Dutch 2012 Eurovision participation.. After a very unsuccessful last place for 3JS in Düsseldorf earlier this year, the broadcaster responsible for the Dutch Eurovision representation is one of the first to share their plans. Since TROS took over the Eurovision selection from national broadcaster NOS, three years ago they have been widely criticised for selecting songs that mainly target their own Dutch audience, with popular Toppers (2009) and 3JS (2011) being the best examples. Neither of these attempts were successful, nor was fully unknown Sieneke in 2010. In fact the Netherlands are the country with the longest record of not reaching the final in all of Europe. Reunion being the last ones to accomplish that in 2004.

News Round-up of the day. Ani Lorak sings Why, the Dutch already got about 50 songs submitted.

There is not much news to report about on this summer day. Eurovision is still quite a bit away, and all artists but Jedward seem to be having their summer vacations right now.

Already about 50 songs have been submitted to the giant mailbox behind the TROS headquarters in Hilversum. Via an open selection procedure the Dutch try to find their hope for Baku. TROS hasn't revealed yet if there are any big names among the submitted entries so far.

Today TROS presented the dutch plans for the new ESC season. Untill 30 September everyone gets the chance to enter a song. They will however have to be physically coming to Hilversum to submit their entry to the mailbox in the backyard of the TROS headquarters. All submissions will be filmed by a camera that is standby 24/7. A jury will select 6 to 7 songs that will have to compete against eachother in a grand finale that is to take place in January 2012. Many artist already revealed to be interested to join in, TROS manager Peter Kuipers revealed on this rainy afternoon in Hilversum.

John de Mol will be producing the Nationaal Songfestival 2012. Is there still hope for the Netherlands...

John de Mol is a Dutch media tycoon that is behind several successfull international television productions. Reality soap Big Brother being the biggest one of them, for sure. John already had one link to the Eurovision Song Contest, being the ex husband of Willeke Alberti, who represented the Netherlands in 1994. Now there will be a second link.

Cornald Maas reunited with the Nationaal Songfestival. John de Mol is analyzing the recent history of the ESC to get the Netherlands back on track. 

While songs for the 2012 Nationaal Songfestival can still be submitted until 30 September, John de Mol started preparing the show. John de Mol is a famous Dutch producer that among other has the Big Brother format on his curriculum.

Breaking News. While the Netherlands are preparing for Saint Nicolas eve, the day all kids get their presents, TROS announces delay.

Unlike reported earlier, TROS is not yet revealing the names of the artists that are going to take part in the Nationaal Songfestival. Because of the enormous amount of submitted songs, they need one more month. On 5 January the names will be publised. The Dutch national final is planned on 26 February.

News Round-up of the day. Christer Björkman, the general in chief in Sweden's Melodifestivalen is quite sure about three songs fro 2012.

He's currently got his whiteboard filled with 32 post-it's that gradually will be filled with colored notes, where red stands for show song, purple for eurovison pop and other colors for other genres. We are hoping for loads of red and purple there in the end. Songs can still be submitted until 20 September.

News Round-up of the day. Jedward in the spotlights again, last night they sang their new song Wow oh wow in 'the Late Late show'.

TROS, the dutch broadcaster, closed the suitcase last night at 00.00h. About 450 entries were submitted to get a ticket to the National selection. At the end of november names and songs will be announced. The National selection will take part on 26th of february 2012.

Against all odds Joan won the Dutch national final tonight, with the song You and Me. The televote decided against the international advisers and the jury.

Joan Franka is the winner of the Nationaal Songfestival 2012 and will therefor represent the Netherlands in Baku. Dressed as an indian Joan Franka sang her song You and Me through the superfinal where she beat Ivan and Pearl.

Due to the influence of John de Mol (the big man behind Big Brother and The Voice) this year's edition of the Dutch national final was quite different from any of the recent editions, with six different kandidates singing six different songs. These six artists duelled against eachother, giving three of them the chance to meet eachother once more in a super final. In the is super final, no less than 52 % of the Dutch audience voted for Joan, ruling out the results of the jury completely, who placed Joan third.

++ Euphoria disqualified?? ++  Dutch battles announced ++ No enthusiam for the Georgian and Montenegrin entries here ++ ..

Before the song Euphoria by Loreen actually is allowed to be released it already seems to be on its way to become an international hit. Euphoria, one of the qualifiers in the first heat of Melodifestivalen this year is a favorit among fans. Untill the day of the Swedish national final the song amy not be published, but somehow it already slipped out and now even made its way into a trailer of a Spanish TV series, reports Eurovision fansite Escdaily. Although this is against the contest rules, Loreen is not likely to be disqualified. Warner Music and SVT are trying hard to get the transmission of the trailer stopped (watch it below).