ABSTRACT
In 1964 the Netherlands was the first nation to break the spell of whiteness in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) when it selected Anneke Gronloh as its representative. The phenomenon of new-Dutch performers in Eurovision foregrounds not only otherness in terms of ethnicity but also diversity in terms of musical style. Milly Scott was a jazz singer who occasionally performed in the "Latin" style, as black singers often found themselves typecast with such music. Her song "Fernando en Filippo" met with skepticism, and Scott was criticized for a singing style that did not suit the ESC – that is, it was not sufficiently "European", "white" in sound, style, and everything else. After Milly Scott, the differences between songs sung by white and non-white contestants were primarily a matter of lyrical content, not musical style, so these would be obvious only to listeners who understood Dutch.
