The Bashing of Ewbank

Music producer Eric van Tijn is unhappy about the artists who sang the King’s Song. He thinks they have totally let down Composer John Ewbank after all the criticisms. "It could and should have been done differently," says Van Tijn. All 51 artists could also have formed a block, after the criticisms, and could have said, for instance, “We think it is a beautiful song and we worked on it with much passion and joy. So we are just going to sing it." "Instead they remained dead silent,” says van Tijn today in the Telegraaf. Van Tijn thinks that it is also very strange that the National Committee Inauguration did not immediately respond. “They just let the violence go on and at a certain moment this became too much for John. He felt totally left alone and thought everybody was allowed to batter him. As he wrote in his letter: I am the only umbrella in this ‘shit rain’.” That John is very unhappy now is an understatement. Even now that the Committee has decided that they want to go on with his song, his feeling has not changed. He experienced a very threatening situation in which everybody was just looking and doing nothing while he was being criticized. Van Tijn thinks that John Ewbank will not be present at Ahoy on April 30. Other people have the same opinion as van Tijn. Albert Verlinde of RTL Boulevard thinks that the NPO (Dutch Public Broadcast) has caused this situation, especially ‘De Wereld Draait Door’ and ‘Pauw en Witteman’. Matthijs van Nieuwkerk and Nico Dijkshoorn van DWDD went too far with their comments on the song. Pauw en Witteman even invited a language professor to give his opinion about the text. This opened the door for all Dutch people to bash John Ewbank. Verlinde is annoyed by the criticisms. “They not only killed the song but ruined the image of the Netherlands. While the goal was to show the world how much fun it is in the Netherlands, we now look like fools.” Verlinde thinks that Hans Wijers, chairman of the Committee, should have immediately responded to the criticisms on TV.