Country Netherlands Selected song "Without You" | Selected entrant Re-Union | |
Selection process National Final
50% Jury
50% Televoting Selection date(s) Semi-finals
22 January 2004
29 January 2004
5 February 2004
12 February 2004
Second Chance
19 February 2004
Final
22 February 2004 Semi-final result Qualified (6th, 146 points) | ||
The Netherlands was represented by Re-Union and the song "Without You". The Dutch Songfestival has had five selection rounds where a total of 24 artists participated. The selection rounds and the National Final were held in the Pepsi Stage Theatre in Amsterdam, hosted by Nance & Humberto Tan. Each selection round contained six songs of which the two highest-scoring songs proceeded to the final, while the third placed song moved on to a wildcard stage where they would compete for another chance to reach the final. A total of 10 songs were chosen to compete in the final, which was held on February 22, 2004. The jury accounted for 50% of the score while televoting took care of the rest. On the jury was Ruth Jacott who represented The Netherlands in 1993 at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Vrede".
At Eurovision, the performance began with an "A cappella" opening sung by the backing singers. After the music started the focus shifted to the duo who delivered their presentation on stools. The simple performance and the advantage of performing last pushed the song into the final from the semi. In the final, the song was drawn into a bad spot surrounded by stronger songs that made the Dutch performance forgettable. The song finished 20th with 11 points, which is a huge difference from the 146 points they earned in the semi-final.