200/917 Lenny Kuhr: De troubadour (Netherlands 1969)

After 40 songs presented in this blog it is now the first time for me to come across a winning song in the Eurovision Song Contest. The victory of the 200th eurosong is overshadowed by the fact that it was one of the four songs to win in 1969. Still in my book it is one of the best winners and best Dutch songs in the Eurovision history ever.

Lenny Kuhr was only 19 years of age and in the beginning of her career when she represented the Netherlands in the contest held in Madrid. With her strong and appealing voice she managed to capture the moment and be one of the four winners that year.

De troubadour is not a typical pop tune of the late 1960's. It is more of a folk song with story of the past. The song tells a very simple story of man who sang his songs to all the people, to the knights, to commoners, to drunks and to priests, to people who missed him when his songs and his life ended. Not more complicated than that, but not more was needed as most of the viewers didn't understand the lyrics anyway.

To me, who have always loved the sound of the dutch language, De troubadour is a beautiful combination of lovely melody, strong arrangement (the live version has much more effective orchestra than the recorded version) and the dutch lyrics sung eloquently by the young singer. This song would have been worth more than just a shared first place.

My points 5/5.

p.s. I've tried to find the real songwriting credits to this song, but the information I've found has been contradicting. According to some sources De troubadour was composed by Kuhr herself and lyrics were written by David Hartsema, but in many places the credits are reversed. Can anyone confirm what were the real credits to this wonderful song?