News - The Netherlands: De Toppers to split? | Eurovision Song Contest News - 2009 Moscow, Russia 

It has become uncertain if De Toppers will actually represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow after a complication led to a public falling out between the band members. Gerard Joling and Gordon have gone public as a row over television contracts and a planned docusoap about their Moscow adventure.

The row threatening De Toppers' participation at the Eurovision Song Contest started several weeks ago when broadcaster SBS announced that they would not allow Gerard to make the docusoap ‘Op weg naar Moskou’ for public broadcaster TROS. Gerard has an exclusive contract with SBS and is considered to be the biggest star on the commercial broadcaster's roster. A final decision hasn’t been taken yet, after several meetings between both broadcasters and the management of De Toppers.

On Monday, it became clear that the manager of De Toppers, Benno de Leeuw, was taken into hospital last week which seemed to be the main reason for not coming to an agreement yet. Two days ago, Gordon confirmed the hospitalistion in an interview with Dutch newspaper Het Algemeen Dagblad and Gerard wasn’t amused: "We agreed not to talk about this in the media, because it’s a very sensitive matter."  

Gordon also reacted on the problems about the docusoap. "Gerard has to show some balls! His contract is based on his activities as a presenter, not as a singer. The docusoap is all about his singing career" Gordon stated in the interview.

Today, Gerard hit back hard, saying "All fingers are pointing to me; I seem to be the one to blame and that’s not fair. We’re still negotiating about the docusoap, but both our manager and the director of SBS were hospitalised in the past few days. That’s the main reason for the delay. As for Gordon, it’s always the same story and I’m done with it. In the past, he has been saying things about me as well in the media. Everytime I confront him with these stories, he tells me he didn’t say things the way they were published. I’m really fed up with all this and I’m close to withdrawing from the whole project. In that case Gordon and René can go to Moscow together. This Eurovision participation seems to be very important to Gordon, but for me it’s all about fun. Besides that, I’m not calling for work; my agenda is loaded!"

It remains to be seen whether the group can resolve their differences and whether an agreement can be reached about the proposed docusoap. At present, there has been no offical statement from NOS about a change to the Eurovision Song Contest plans, but esctoday.com is monitoring the situation and update you with all the facts as they come.