Holland has the X Factor – Week 1

There was a time when the Netherlands was my number two country for foreign music finds, only second to the almighty Swedes. I loved acts such as Anouk, Elize, Sita and of course the fantastic Dutch Star Academy group K-otic, who I was obsessed with for a couple of years. However, in the last few years they’ve lost their magic touch, and I hardly feature any Dutch music on this blog anymore. I much prefer the music that has come out of Denmark and Norway to the Dutch pop scene, and even France has provided better pop than Holland recently. So, after having enjoyed covering the recent Danish X Factor series, I’ve decided to do the same for the new Dutch series, which has just had its first live show, and hopefully there will be at least a few acts who can restore my faith in Dutch pop music.

Part 1: The Over 26s

Dony Vernianto: I must admit that, simply because Dony is a bit strange looking and clearly doesn’t have a full grasp of the Dutch language, I thought he was just a novelty contestant, but actually he’s a fairly good singer. He’s not a star in any way, but he does seem to be extremely popular (the audience were chanting his name after his performance!) so he will probably stick around for a while. I don’t think he’s a real contender to win, though.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5UvD_N4ijQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&border=1]