Video: Dutch Eurovision 2023 entry "Burning Daylight" officially revealed
The Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest was officially released by broadcaster AVROTROS on Wednesday. The song is a duet with Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper titled, "Burning Daylight."
The three-minute ballad officially premiered in a simultaneous release on Dutch television and radio, as well as the Eurovision YouTube channel. Nicolai and Cooper will perform in the first Eurovision Song Contest semifinal on May 9. Those who advance will take part in the grand final on May 13.
The immediate reaction in the YouTube comments were mixed, with some users calling it a "beautiful message" and praising the lyrics about maintaining identity in a broken relationship. Others found the song boring and lacking in energy.
The song was written by the two singers, along with 2019 Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence, his fiancee, Jordan Garfield, and Haarlem-based music producer Loek van der Grinten. “Burning Daylight is about falling, making mistakes and then getting back up. That you learn from those mistakes, from your past, that you can leave things behind so that you can become a better version of yourself. But it's also about accepting that we're all human and that if humans also experience pain and that we have to go through that," they said in a statement.
Nicolai's songs, "Mutual Needs" and "Set Me Free" have each been streamed over 350,000 times on Spotify, with Mutual Needs earning acclaim from reviewers in 2020. "The message she wants to convey with her music is that your past says nothing about the future and that you have that completely in your own hands. You can create yourself into the person you dream of being. And that starts with acceptance," her bio on AVROTROS stated.
Cooper debuted in 2020, and his song, "Fire," was successful. He wound up touring as an opening act for Laurence in 2021. Laurence also worked with Nicolai in the past. Cooper told the broadcaster he tries to live his life by the mantra, "Bring the joy."
