"De troubadour" ("The troubadour"), is a song recorded by Dutch singer Lenny Kuhr, with music composed by David Hartsema and lyrics by Kuhr herself. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid, and became one of the four winning songs. Kuhr recorded the song in six languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.

Background

Conception

"De troubadour" music was written by David Hartsema and lyrics by Lenny Kuhr. It is a ballad inspired both musically and lyrically by folk-song traditions. It is about a troubadour of the Middle Ages, describing the impact the music has on his audiences.

Eurovision

On 26 February 1969, "De troubadour" performed by Lenny Kuhr competed in the of the Nationaal Songfestival, the national final organized by the Nederlandse Televisie Stichting (NTS) to select their song and performer for the of the Eurovision Song Contest. The song won the competition so it became the for the contest. Kuhr recorded the song in Dutch, English –as "The Troubadour"–, French –"Le troubadour"–, German –"Der Troubadour"–, Italian –"Un cantastorie"–, and Spanish –"El trovador"–. On 29 March 1969, the Eurovision Song Contest was held at the Teatro Real in Madrid hosted by Televisión Española (TVE), and broadcast live throughout the continent. Kuhr performed "De troubadour" eighth on the night, following 's "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu and preceding 's "Judy, min vän" by Tommy Körberg. Frans de Kok conducted the live orchestra in the performance of the Dutch entry. At the close of voting, the song had received 18 points, the same number of points as 's "Vivo cantando" by Salomé, the 's "Un jour, un enfant" by Frida Boccara, and the United Kingdom's "Boom Bang-a-Bang" by Lulu. As there was no tiebreaker rule in place at the time, all four countries were declared joint winners. Since the in was joint last, the Netherlands thus achieved the rare feat of going from (equal) last to (equal) first in the space of one year.

Aftermath

"De troubadour" was included in Kuhr's studio album Lenny Kuhr. Five years after the Contest, she recorded the song with revised Dutch lyrics, then retitled "De generaal" ("The general"), which was a homage to the Dutch national soccer coach Rinus Michels, who was nicknamed so by the players of the Dutch team. Kuhr performed her song in the Eurovision twenty-fifth anniversary show Songs of Europe held on 22 August 1981 in Mysen. On 22 May 2021, the interval act "Rock the Roof" in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 grand final featured "De troubadour" performed by Kuhr in the same dress she wore in her Eurovision winning performance fifty-two years earlier.