Conception "De troubadour" music was written by and lyrics by
Lenny Kuhr. It is a
ballad inspired both musically and lyrically by
folk-song traditions. It is about a
troubadour of the
Middle Ages, describing the impact the music has on his audiences.
Eurovision On 26 February 1969, "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr competed in the of the
Nationaal Songfestival, the national final organized by the
Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) to select their song and performer for the of the
Eurovision Song Contest. The song won the competition so it became the for the contest. Kuhr recorded the song in Dutch, English –as "The Troubadour"–, French –"Le troubadour"–, German –"Der Troubadour"–, Italian –"Un cantastorie"–, and Spanish –"El trovador"–. At the close of voting, the song had received 18 points, the same number of points as 's "" by
Salomé, the 's "
Un jour, un enfant" by
Frida Boccara, and the United Kingdom's "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu. As there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners. Since the in was joint last, the Netherlands thus achieved the rare feat of going from (equal) last to (equal) first in the space of one year.
Aftermath "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. Kuhr performed her song in the Eurovision twenty-fifth anniversary show
Songs of Europe held on 22 August 1981 in
Mysen. 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. ==References==