Zandvoortse Bodine (23) wants to represent Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest

Sure, Bodine would prefer to represent the Netherlands during the Eurovision Song Contest. “Every time I return to Schiphol it feels like home to me,” she tells NH. But in the Netherlands it is now arranged that you cannot compete for a place at the song festival. A group of experts selects one artist based on all submissions.

Audition

How different is that in Germany. There too you register as a candidate with a song, but then there is a whole process in which you can assert yourself. The jury makes an initial selection based on demos. The selected candidates then audition and some of them progress to the final. During the final, both the audience and the jury decide who will ultimately be delegated to the Eurovision Song Contest.

“As a child I already dreamed of participating in the Eurovision Song Contest,” says Bodine in a coffee shop in her hometown. “I knew it would be difficult to play for the Netherlands writer’s camp (meeting of musicians and producers to write songs together, ed.) I worked with musicians from other countries. That’s how the idea arose to make a song for the German Eurovision Song Contest.”

Freedom

That number became Tears Like Rain. A pop ballad, a song that really suits me. It builds from a quiet, somewhat sad beginning to a climax that symbolizes a new, positive start for me. During that climax there is also a show element on stage. What exactly that will be, I still have to discuss with the German TV producers. I have a lot of freedom and it really becomes my own performance.”

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It’s the finishing touches. Bodine has already arranged most of it for the final on February 16. During the big TV show she is introduced to the German audience, with an introductory video and an interview. “That has all been recorded before. When I had to go to Germany for the interview, I first studied German for three whole days.”

It illustrates Bodine’s ambition and perfectionism, because her German is already above average for a Dutch person. “I had German at school. That already makes a difference. But it also helps that I live in Zandvoort. In the summer you only hear German around you here. I think I’ve just picked that up already.”

Bodine is also internationally oriented. Her parents met in Canada. Her father is a pilot and is currently stationed in Hong Kong. Bodine was born in Haarlem. After the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the family moved to Zandvoort.

Has she already asked what Germans in her hometown think of her entry? “No, haha, I haven’t done that yet. It’s very quiet here in the winter now.” In another way she does benefit from her roots. “I notice that in Germany they like the way I speak: German with a Canadian and Dutch accent.”