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Euclovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Hennehouwe
National selection
Selection process	Het Grote Songfestival 2022
Selection date(s)	Semi-finals: 5 February 2022 12 February 2022 19 February 2022 Final: 26 February 2022
Hennehouwe in the Euclovision Song Contest
2022

Hennehouwe is scheduled to compete at the Euclovision Song Contest 2022 in tba, Piraea. The Hennish broadcaster, Hennish National Broadcasting (HNO) will use Het Grote Songfestival 2022 in order to select the Hennish entry for the 2022 contest. After three semi-finals where 24 songs and artists will compete, a combination of regional juries and public televoting will be used to select the winner during the final, who will have the right of first refusal to represent the nation at the contest.

Background

Prior to the 2022 contest, Hennehouwe had participated in the Euclovision Song Contest sixty times since its first entry in the inaugural contest in 1959. Hennehouwe had won the contest on four occasions: in 1966 with the song "Lopen zoals ik zou moeten" performed by Sanne Kool, in 1981 with the song "Vrouw in ketens" performed by Barb van Daalen, in 1995 with the song "Lichtstraal" performed by Rood en Vrienden, and in 2014 with the song "Je reviendrai" performed by Jasmeen. Since the introduction of the semi-finals, Hennehouwe has qualified for the final on all but two occasions.

At the 2021 contest, Hennehouwe was represented by Esmee Bloeme with the song "De Boulevard". The song finished in fifth place in the final with 128 points.

The Hennish public broadcaster, Hennish National Broadcasting (HNO), broadcasts the event within Hennehouwe and organises the selection process for the country's entry. Since 1961, HNO uses the annual song competition Het Grote Songfestival to select the Hennish entry for the Euclovision Song Contest. From 1961 to 2007, the competition was used to select the Hennish entry outright, however since 2008 the winner is no longer obliged to compete at the contest if they so choose, instead having the right of first refusal. Along with their participation confirmation, HNO confirmed that Het Grote Songfestival would be used to select the Hennish entry for the 2022 contest, and that the right of first refusal provision would remain for the winning artist(s).

Before Euclovision

Het Grote Songfestival 2022

Het Grote Songfestival 2022 will be the fifty-ninth edition of the Hennish music competition Het Grote Songfestival, which has been used to select the Hennish entry for the Euclovision Song Contest since 1961. The competition will consist of four shows: three semi-finals and a final, in which 24 artists and songs will take part. The semi-finals will be held on 5, 12 and 19 February respectively, with the final taking place on 26 February.

All four shows will be held at the Concertzaal in s'Holle, and will be broadcast on De Eerste and Radio A. A second audio program will be made available with commentary in Gaullican, Estmerish and Vespasian, with separate streams also streamed online via HNO Play. All four shows will be hosted by Laura Jacobs, Sienna Molenaar and Vito Russo.

Format

The format for Het Grote Songfestival 2022 remains largely unchanged from the format used in the preceding years. Three semi-finals will be held on 5, 12 and 19 February. Eight songs will compete in each semi-final, with four qualifying for the final from each semi-final. The first three qualifiers from each semi-final will be determined by public televoting, whilst the fourth will be determined by a ten-member expert jury panel. The exact results of the semi-final, including the identity of the televote and jury qualifiers respectively, will remain undisclosed until after the final. Twelve songs will compete in the final, from which the winner will be selected by a combination of jury voting by the ten regions of Hennehouwe (50%) and public televoting (50%).

The winning artist and songwriter(s) will have the option to represent Hennehouwe at the Euclovision Song Contest 2022. If they choose not to accept, the position will then be offered to the second place artist/songwriter(s) and so on until the position is filled.

Competing entries

As with previous years, the competing entries for Het Grote Songfestival 2022 were drawn from a combination of sources including open submissions, artist invitiations and talent scouting. On 28 July 2021, HNO opened an online portal for open song submissions from songwriters and artists until 10 September 2021. HNO also reserved the right to invite submissions directly into the process from outside the open submissions phase. For the fifth year in a row, HNO will also invite artists from Project Vitrine, the broadcaster's platfom for promoting new Hennish artists, with four places reserved for such compositions. Excluding external and Project Vitrine invitations, more than 500 submissions were sent to HNO.

Songs must not exceed three minutes and thirty seconds in length (further shortened if the song goes to Euclovision) and must be sung in either Hennish, Gaullican or Estmerish. In recent years, allowances have been made for songs which feature some lyrics in other languages on a case-by-case basis, but songs must still be predominantly sung in one of the aforementioned languages.

A three-stage process of selecting the finalists throughout late 2021, concluding with a final shortlist of approximately forty songs. In addition to artistic quality and experience, HNO also took into consideration the fair representation of gender, ethnic and linguistic groups as well as the variety of musical genres to determine the makeup of the twenty-four finalists.

The original list of the twenty-four competing entries was announced on 11 January 2022. Fifteen entries were selected via external invitations from HNO, six entries were selected from among the open submissions portal, whilst the remaining four entries were selected via Project Vitrine. For the first time since 2013, no previous winners of Het Grote Songfestival were among the competing entrants; however Cathelijn Welle, who finished third in Het Grote Songfestival 2009, represented Hennehouwe at the Euclovision Song Contest 2009 after the top two entrants opted not to participate. Goldboys, KENES, Leonie Nevensel and Saint-Peter were announced as the four artists selected through Project Vitrine.

On 17 January, HNO announced that Faz H, who had been due to compete with the song "Door alles", had been withdrawn from the competition following allegations of sexual misconduct. A replacement entry is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Artist	Song	Language(s)	Composer(s)	Selection
Alessandro	"Un milione di colori"	Vespasian, Hennish	Alessandro, Arnout van Lis, Giorgio Coco, Leeroy	Invited by HNO
AVA	"cellulaire"	Gaullican	Ava Laroui, Seb Denebi	Open submission
Badlands	"Au lever du soleil"	Gaullican	Benoît Lepoutre, Kevin Lepoutre, Ilyas De Mesmaeker	Invited by HNO
BANSHEÉ	"When We Cry"	Estmerish	Bianca Velghe, Jochem Bick, Jonas Van Eps, Kody Debruel, Parsa Dara
BLŒK	"Dageraad"	Hennish	Derk Veltmann, Hannes Leever, Heinke Sayer, Maarten Schoonhoven
Cathelijn Welle	"Vlinders"	Hennish	Cathelijn Welle, Arend Goens, Sanne Baltes, Stefaan van der Zee
Elise Koster	"Alle lichten"	Hennish	Calvin Meis, Ludo Ates, Sophie Koman
Ella Dewulf	"Simplement"	Gaullican	D'Arcy Bohen	Open submission
Faz H	"Door alles"	Hennish	Faz Mehrian, Marco Lesser, Paul Stam	Invited by HNO
Goldboys	"Rood alarm"	Hennish	Fabio Depoortere, Kiru Melesse, Michiel Houge, Vito Caiazzo	Project Vitrine
Jetta & Thies	"Taal van de liefde"	Hennish	Jetta Hegemans, Thies Kruk, Arend Goens, Marko Reel, Suzana Banović	Invited by HNO
KENES	"Alles wat je doet"	Hennish	Kenes Guret Harris	Project Vitrine