The Netherlands participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Out on My Own" written by Dirk-Jan Vermeij and André Remkes. The song was performed by Michelle. The Dutch broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) organised the national final Nationaal Songfestival 2001 in order to select the Dutch entry for the 2001 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark. Six entries competed in the national final on 3 March 2001 where "Out on My Own" performed by Michelle was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from three jury panels and a public vote.
The Netherlands competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2001. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, the Netherlands placed eighteenth out of the 23 participating countries, scoring 16 points.
Background
Prior to the 2001 contest, the Netherlands had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-two times since their début as one of seven countries to take part in the inaugural contest in . Since then, the country has won the contest four times: in with the song "Net als toen" performed by Corry Brokken; in with the song "'n Beetje" performed by Teddy Scholten; in as one of four countries to tie for first place with "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr; and finally in with "Ding-a-dong" performed by the group Teach-In. The Dutch least successful result has been last place, which they have achieved on four occasions, most recently in the 1968 contest. The Netherlands has also received nul points on two occasions; in and .
The Dutch national broadcaster, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), broadcast the event within the Netherlands and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Netherlands has used various methods to select the Dutch entry in the past, such as the Nationaal Songfestival, a live televised national final to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. However, internal selections have also been held on occasion. Since 1998, NOS has organised Nationaal Songfestival in order to select both the artist and song for the contest, a method that was continued for the 2001 Dutch entry.
Before Eurovision
Nationaal Songfestival 2001
Nationaal Songfestival 2001 was the national final developed by NOS that selected the Dutch entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2001. Eight entries competed in the competition that consisted of a final on 3 March 2001 which took place at the Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, hosted by Paul de Leeuw and was broadcast on Nederland 2. The first part of the national final was watched by 1.8 million viewers in the Netherlands with a market share of 25%, while the second part was watched by 2.1 million viewers with a market share of 34%.
Competing entries
A submission period was opened by the Dutch broadcaster on 20 July 2000 where artists and composers were able to submit their entries until 2 October 2000. 304 submissions were received by the broadcaster at the closing of the deadline, and the eight selected competing entries were announced on 29 December 2000. Seven of the entries for the competition came from the public submission through the decision by a selection commission consisting of Menno Timmerman, Daan van Rijsbergen, Ad Kraamer and Willem van Beusekom as well as from composers directly invited by NOS, while the remaining entry ("Danielle" performed by Montezuma's Revenge) came from Conamus which organised a workshop where a team of musicians consisting of Alan Michael, Edwin Schimscheimer, Jan Rot and Henk Westbroek worked with amateur songwriters as well as on several of the public submissions selected by the commission.
Final
The final took place on 3 March 2001 where eight entries competed. The winner, "Out on My Own" performed by Michelle, was selected by the 50/50 combination of a public televote and the votes of three juries: a musicians jury, a composers jury and a music industry jury. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 120 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through the following voting methods: telephone and SMS voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 120 points rounded to the nearest integer: 12 points. 45,000 of the votes were cast by the public via SMS during the show.