You don’t often get a national final where the result is decided by just one voter. And in many respects this wasn’t a national final at all. Instead, Waylon – known to Eurovision viewers as Ilse DeLange’s duet partner from the Common Linnets in 2014 – presented five songs from his new album on Dutch television over the past week. No public vote was planned; instead, Waylon would simply announce which of the five songs – “Back Together”, “Outlaw In ‘Em”, “The World Can Wait”, “That’s How She Goes” and “Thanks But No Thanks” – he would be packing in his suitcase and taking with him to Lisbon, having previously been selected internally as the artist to represent the Netherlands at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

With “The World Can Wait” being the title of Waylon’s new album and forthcoming tour, it had been theorised that the title track would be his likely choice for ESC, but “Outlaw In ‘Em” got the nod instead. Needing to be shaved down to three minutes from the original live performance, an ESC-compliant version of the song has already popped up on Spotify, so at least we don’t have to wait for the Heads of Delegation meeting for that!

In his guest role with the Common Linnets, Waylon (real name Willem Bijkerk) was responsible for the best Dutch result in the contest since the last time they won it way back in 1975, so expectations will be high when he takes to the stage in Lisbon with “Outlaw In ‘Em” in the first half of the second semi-final on Thursday 10 May.

See what you think of his chosen entry here: