It was a coincidence, but couldn’t have been planned better as the Dutch docu-soap with Gerard Joling and Gordon as the main characters started just as I arrived to the Netherlands. I must admit that I don’t know whether I should laugh or cry.
It has been interesting to follow it from the Dutch media, though I have needed some translations here and there. And people say that it is mainly the Scandinavian countries who are obsessed about the Eurovision Song Contest – for Christ sake, how many countries makes cartoons about their participants? And in how many countries will you find the latest gossip regarding that participant in a food program on TV? Ok, it might just be because the Netherlands this time had decided to show the world how a real drama queen behaves by letting their popular trio De Toppers represent them at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Gordon and Gerard Joling’s love and hate relationship has led them to fight just as often as people change socks – and their bad mouthing and name calling always happened in prime time TV shows. By announcing them to represent the Netherlands at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest NOS clearly expected a lot of extra publicity when one of them would announce an immediately exit from the duo in the middle of a press conference. Great stuff – and even better when they the next day would declare how much they love each other and can’t do without one another!
The trio has broken up so many times that no one thought that the wolf really was coming this time, but with Jeroen van der Boom being announced as a new member it appears like it is indeed serious this time. But don’t worry; there should still be plenty of drama regarding De Toppers in Moscow.
The first thing Jeroen said about his new role as a part of De Toppers was that he wanted to do things his way and not be another Gerard Joling, but he sounds like a younger version of him and having put sound to Gerard’s character in a cartoon as a part of his career he might just end up being that! I must hand it though that he isn’t yet as much of a drama queen as Gerard is, but will the next De Toppers scandal be when Gordon manages to turn him into one, or will the quiet René Froger step out of the shadow? And what about Gerard Joling, is it really over for good between him and Gordon? I don’t think so, but we will have to wait a little bit longer for the next chapter in this soap opera. One thing is for sure: De Toppers have given the Danish DQ a few lessons in how to be a real drama queen!
