The Common Linnets from The Netherlands have seen their chances of bagging the title increase (Picture: Ragnar Singsaas/Getty Images)

The United Kingdom has seen Molly rise to become the favourite to win Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen but a new rival for the title emerged during last night’s first semi final.

The Netherlands’ entry Calm After The Storm’, sung by The Common Linnets has caused a major stir in Denmark.

It sailed through in the semi final and has seen its odds cut from 100/1 outsiders to 7/1 overnight. A week ago, the song was written off as a 250/1 rank outsider.

The Common Linnets are Ilse DeLange and Waylon, a male-female duet with a country music background. The song is perhaps the most simple ever seen at the Eurovision Song Contest. It has just three chords and the first half of the song is shown in a single camera take.




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In a contest where we see trampolines, men running on hamster wheels, trapeze artists, giant seesaws, bearded ladies and more spotlights than the combined air defence across London in the Blitz, the Dutch entry stood out a mile last night and has stolen hearts of many across Europe.

Early this morning, Calm after the Storm had even broken into the UK Top 40 downloads on iTunes.

The Dutch record at the Eurovision Song Contest has not been strong for many years. Since the introduction of the semi finals ten years ago, they failed to qualify for the Eurovision final until last year when Anouk represented the Orange nation.

Had they not reached a respectable 9th place, the Dutch would most likely have withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest.

They returned this year with a country song, a genre undergoing a major resurgence since the 2012 launch of the international smash hit television series, Nashville.

Country music is now cool again and the Eurovision Song Contest is undergoing a major change in reputation as well. The timing of this year’s Netherlands song might just be perfect.

The Netherlands’ Anouk restored Dutch confidence with a top 10 finish last year (Picture: Getty Images)

The Netherlands has won the Eurovision Song Contest four times. But two of those wins were way back in the 1950s.

Yes, the Eurovision Song Contest is that old.

Next year it celebrates its 60th Birthday, and rather than thinking about retirement, the contest is stronger than ever, pulling in a staggering 180million television viewers. It is the most watched music event in the world.

There are still some storm clouds ahead for The Netherlands though. Of the ten songs to qualify from last night’s semi final, seven were ballads. There is still stiff competition from Armenia and Sweden in the genre and Malta also have a country song which is tipped to qualify from tomorrow night’s semi final.

One thing we do know is that the Eurovision Song Contest reputation for cheese and irrelevance is dying fast.

It is quickly becoming a showcase for musical talent, quality music and a great night’s television.