Eurovision winner Duncan Laurence launches debut EP
A year after Duncan Laurence won the Eurovision Song Contest for the Netherlands with his song ‘Arcade’, he finally releases his first EP. Although the singer-songwriter toured in the Netherlands as well as Europe with over an hour of his own songs, he decided to travel to Los Angeles to record new music. Those new songs are the ones that he put on Words On Fire, together with Arcade and follow-up Love Don’t Hate It of course.
The EP opens with the guitar-driven tune ‘Beautiful’, which he sings for his inner circle of close friends and family. He sings about how they put out the flames when his world is on fire and how they stay the same when the world around him changes. His vocals in the verse are understated in a way Australian pop star Troye Sivan often sounds, but he belts away with power in the chorus. His vocals are supported by mainly guitar for most of the track, but drums and backing vocals join in for an anthemic, echoing outro. Laurence co-produced this tune himself and did an outstanding job!
The same goes for ‘Yet’, a quiet, acoustic song. Over just guitar, his vocals sound pure and fragile in the verses, while he shows off his characteristic higher register in the chorus. The song follows a somewhat similar structure to that of ‘Arcade’, albeit a lot more subdued and stripped back. The Eurovision winning song sounds just as overwhelming and heartbreakingly beautiful as part of the EP as it did when I first heard it. It never fails to give me all the feels!
Laurence releases ‘Someone Else’ as his next single, which is an obvious choice out of the three new songs. It is easily the most poppy and upbeat effort with a contemporary feel, a rousing pre-chorus and a satisfying main hook. The lyrics are about missing a former lover when you are alone, picturing them with someone else. The track was co-written by Laurence, Bram Inscore, PJ Harding, Jonny Price and pop artist Leland, who also worked Troye Sivan and Selena Gomez. ‘Someone Else’ certainly has the potential to become another radio hit, like second single and EP closer ‘Love Don’t Hate It’ was.
Some might say that Duncan Laurence waited too long with the launch of his solo career after Eurovision, but we can only applaud him for following his own path and only putting out music that he truly believes in and which properly tells his personal story. Laurence seems to know exactly what he wants to sound like and based on this EP, I definitely would like to hear more!