De troubadour

"De troubadour" ("The troubadour"), is a song recorded by Dutch singer Lenny Kuhr, with music composed by David Hartsema [nl] and lyrics by Kuhr herself. It represented the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid, and became one of the four winning songs.

Lulu recorded the song in six languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Background

Conception

"De troubadour" music was written by

On 26 February 1969, "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr competed in the national final organized by the Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) to select their song and performer for the 14th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. The song won the competition so it became the Dutch entry for the contest.^[2]

Kuhr recorded the song in Dutch, English –as "The Troubadour"–, French –"Le troubadour"–, German –"Der Troubadour"–, Italian –"Un cantastorie"–, and Spanish –"El trovador"–.^[1]

On 29 March 1969, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Teatro Real in Madrid hosted by Televisión Española (TVE), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Kuhr performed "De troubadour" eighth on the night, following United Kingdom's "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu and preceding Sweden's "Judy, min vän" by Tommy Körberg. Frans de Kok conducted the live orchestra in the performance of the Dutch entry.^[3]

At the close of voting, the song had received 18 points, the same number of points as

"De troubadour" was included in Kuhr's studio album Lenny Kuhr. Five years after the Contest, she recorded the song with revised Dutch lyrics, then retitled "De generaal" ("The general"), which was a homage to the Dutch national soccer coach Rinus Michels, who was nicknamed so by the players of the Dutch team.

On 22 May 2021, the interval act "Rock the Roof" in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 grand final featured "De troubadour" performed by Kuhr in the same dress she wore in her Eurovision winning performance fifty-two years earlier.^[6]

References