| Year: | 1960 |
| Country: | Netherlands |
| Preselection: | Nationaal Songfestival 1960 |
| Preselection Date: | 9 February 1960 |
| Entrant: | Rudi Carrell |
| Song: | Wat een geluk |
| Final Result: | 12th, 2 points |
The Netherlands was represented by Rudi Carrell, with the song "Wat een geluk", at the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 29 March in London. Although Teddy Scholten had won the previous contest for the Netherlands, Dutch broadcaster NTS declined to host the contest for a second time in two years, so 1959 runners-up the United Kingdom had agreed to host the 1960 contest, which was staged by the BBC at London's Royal Festival Hall.
Song and singer were chosen independently of each other at the Dutch national final, held on 9 February at 21:00 CET (UTC 20:00).[1] Other participants included future Dutch representatives Greetje Kauffeld (1961) and Annie Palmen (1963).
NTS received 340 submissions for the national final, more than in previous years.[2] Eight of them were chosen for the national final. The national final was also broadcast in Curaçao on RNW, just a few days after it was held.[3]
The national final took place at the AVRO TV studios in Hilversum. It was produced by Piet de Nuyl Jr., directed by and hosted by Hannie Lips. Eight songs were involved, with all songs presented twice by different performers. In the first round, half of the songs, "Carrousel", "Niet voor mij", "Regenkapje" and "Vanavond" were performed with a full orchestra, the Metropole Orkest under the direction of Dolf van der Linden, while the other fours songs, "Addio", "In mijn hart", "Wat een geluk" and "Ik leef" were presented in a more pared-down style, with an ensemble led by Eddy de Jong. In the second round, in a different running order, all songs previously presented with the orchestra were now presented with the ensemble, and vice-versa.
The format was basically the same as that used in 1959, apart from the fact that this year each singer performed only once so there were 16 participants in total.
As an interval act between round 1 and 2, the Metropole Orkest played "When Johnny comes marching home", and after round 2 "Jungle Drums" composed by Ernesto Lecuona.
The winning song was chosen by votes from twelve regional juries, each of them consisting of ten television viewers. The regional juries were located in Boekelo, Boxtel, Coevorden, Drachten, Emmeloord, Rotterdam, Groningen, Gulpen, Yerseke, Nijmegen, Zaandam and Zeist. Then an "expert" jury decided which of the two performers of the winning song should go to London. This expert jury consisted of (jury president),, Jo Calff, Conny Stuart and Andrea Domburg.
After "Wat een geluk", written by Willy van Hemert and, was announced as the winning song, the expert jury unanimously chose Carrell over Palmen as the singer.[4]
| R/O 1 | Performer 1 | R/O 2 | Performer 2 | Song | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | "Carrousel" | 86 | 4 | |||
| 2 | Betty Luske | 4 | "Addio" | 110 | 2 | ||
| 3 | Greetje Kauffeld | 5 | Piet Sybrandy | "Niet voor mij" | 99 | 3 | |
| 4 | 2 | Jan van de Most | "In mijn hart" | 77 | 5 | ||
| 5 | 3 | Rita Huyskens | "Regenkapje" | 35 | 7 | ||
| 6 | Annie Palmen | 8 | Rudi Carrell | "Wat een geluk" | 225 | 1 | |
| 7 | Jaap Dubbelboer | 1 | "Vanavond" | 27 | 8 | ||
| 8 | 6 | "Ik leef" | 61 | 6 |
On the night of the final Rudi Carrell performed 10th in the running order, following Switzerland and preceding Germany. At the close of voting "Wat een geluk" had received 2 points, placing the Netherlands 12th of the 13 entries, ahead only of Luxembourg. The Dutch jury awarded its highest mark (5) to the United Kingdom.[5]
The Dutch conductor at the contest was Dolf van der Linden.
Rudi Carrell's bad result marked the start of a very poor Eurovision decade for the Netherlands, in which the country never placed higher than 10th again until Lenny Kuhr's shared victory in the 1969 contest.
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to his or her favourite song.