The major stars in the Dutch music scene have rarely worn their nationality on their sleeves. It is difficult to imagine No Limit by 2 Unlimited or the Vengaboys’ enduring eurodance track Boom Boom Boom Boom achieving quite the same success in the artists’ native language.

As with Nederpop, a genre of music that enjoyed its moment under the disco-lights in the 1960s and 1970s, the stars seeking international success have generally sung in English or dispensed with words altogether; Dutch was left to the folk singers. Dutch-born Eddie Van Halen, who moved to California with his family as a child, was never likely to insist that his eponymous band sang in his mother tongue.

But now, with a little trepidation, 2020 is being talked up as something of a watershed year.

This Saturday, 43% of the musicians performing at the Noorderslag festival, in Groningen, considered the barometer of local pop music, will be performing in Dutch. That compares to 17.5% 20 years ago. Radio stations are also said be playing more Dutch-language music – and it is also finding an audience outside the Netherlands.

Trouw newspaper this week noted that the Dutch hip-hop artist Bizzey had recently enjoyed a hit in Turkey, local rappers Lil ‘Kleine and Ronnie Flex had enjoyed success in Germany with their track Drank & Drugs, and the US music bible, Rolling Stone, had tipped Gloria by Clean Pete as one of the best Christmas albums of 2019.

While careful not to lose their heads, Trouw reflected on those successes with a headline asking: “Dutch-language music is hot. Excuse me, hot. How is that possible?”

The newspaper surmised that the sudden popularity might have something to do with the greater ease with which listeners can find Dutch music in the era of streaming. They asked whether it could also be part of a counter-reaction to the internationalisation of music and culture, citing the phenomenon of McDonald’s McKroket (a burger with a breaded beef patty in the middle) as evidence of a growing nostalgia for local ways.

A sterner test of whether Dutch-language pop has a chance on the international stage will take place in Rotterdam in May, however. After last year’s Eurovision victory for Dutch singer Duncan de Moor, professionally known as Duncan Laurence, with his English-language song Arcade, Rotterdam will host the competition.

Dutch singer Duncan Laurence won last year’s European song contest, but sang in English. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

Jeangu Macrooy, 26, who moved to the Netherlands from Suriname in 2014, has been selected to represent his country. Macrooy’s song, and more importantly the language in which he will sing it, are yet to be revealed.

Whatever the reason for the outbreak of Dutch-language music, the artists finding success with it offer a simple explanation for its return to the pop genre.

Jeanne Rouwendaal, a singer-songwriter in the Dutch pop band Wies told Trouw that she felt that her music was only truly authentic in her mother tongue. “I can express more character in my native language”, she said. “I come from the Zaan region [in the north]. You can tell by my accent and use of words. In English, that all falls away.”