winner, 1959
Teddy Scholten
Teddy Scholten represented the Netherlands at Eurovision 1959 in Cannes with “Een beetje”, and won.
- who
- Dutch singer
- born
- 11 May 1926, The Hague, Netherlands
- died
- 8 April 2010 (aged 83), The Hague, Netherlands
- contest
- 1959
- win
- 1959
- music
- pop
- active
- 1955 to 1975
- record labels
- Philips Records
- sang for
- Netherlands
Biography
Teddy Scholten was a Dutch singer and television presenter, best known for winning the 1959 contest in Cannes with “Een beetje”. It was the second win for the Netherlands in three years.
Written by ESC Predictions, 8 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, “Teddy Scholten”.
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At Eurovision
One song, and what became of it.
-
1959 Cannes
“Een beetje”
Winner Won the contest with 21 points, ahead of 10 other songs.
- Sung in
- Dutch
- Written by
- Willy van Hemert, Dick Schallies
- Conductor
- Dolf van der Linden
- Running order
- 5th of 11
- Age on the night
- 32
Play: Teddy Scholten — “Een beetje”, the winning performance at Eurovision 1959 hear it YouTube the contest’s channel Spotify search Apple Music search
The story of Eurovision 1959: Cannes, a revolving stage and the first country to win twice
In our contest stories
What we wrote about Teddy Scholten, year by year. Follow a link for the rest of that night.
- 1959 The result
The Netherlands won again. Teddy Scholten's "Een beetje" took 21 votes, making the Dutch the first country to win twice — both times with words by the same lyricist, Willy van Hemert, who became the first person to write two winners.
- 1959 Three encores
The winner's medallion was meant to be handed over at the delegations' supper afterwards. Instead French television's head of programmes, Jean d'Arcy, gave it to Scholten on stage before the broadcast ended.
- 1960 Two things that stuck
And the prize, a silver-gilt vase, was handed over by the previous year's winner, Teddy Scholten. Nobody had done that before. It became the custom.
Results as published by the European Broadcasting Union. Biographical details from Wikidata. The photo is from Wikimedia Commons and is credited beside it. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.