De Vogels Van Holland

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De Vogels Van Holland
Eurovision Song Contest 1956 entry
Country	Netherlands
Artist(s)	Jetty Paerl
Language	Dutch
Composer(s)	Cor Lemaire
Lyricist(s)	Annie M. G. Schmidt
Place	NA
Points	NA
Lyrics	from Diggiloo Thrush

De Vogels Van Holland (English translation: "The Birds Of Holland") was the first Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956 - the only Contest at which two entries per country were allowed - performed in Dutch by Jetty Paerl.

The song is particularly significant for being the first song performed in Eurovision Song Contest history.

Performed in the chanson style characteristic of the early years of the Contest, the song is about the titular "birds of Holland". Paerl sings that they are especially musical, learning to "twitter in their early youth/So they can celebrate spring in Holland". She goes on to explain that it is the uniquely Dutch climate and the faithfulness of Dutch girls that cause the birds of the country to sing. It appears, indeed, that the Dutch birds actually sing lyrics, as they are contrasted with "the French birds", "the Japanese birds" and "the Chinese birds", all of which sing "tudeludelu" (a sound roughly approximating birdsong).

According to Des Mangan, this song set the tone for the Eurovision tradition of nonsensical lyrics, although he admits that there are other contenders for such a claim as well.

The song was performed first on the night (preceding Switzerland's Lys Assia with "Das Alte Karussell"). Because the scoreboard of the 1956 Contest was never made public, it is impossible to make any definite statements about a score or a place. What is known, however, is that the song did not win. Indeed, there are no surviving studio recordings of Paerl performing the song, a fate which befell most entries at this Contest.

It was succeeded as Dutch representative by the second Dutch entry of the night, Corry Brokken with "Voorgoed Voorbij".