In 2019, Duncan Laurence, a resident of the small Dutch town of Hellevoetsluis, swept Eurovision and brought the Netherlands their first win in 40 years with a performance of his lead single, “Arcade.” In 2020, the emerging artist dropped his debut album, Small Town Boy. Now the power-house Pop singer is giving us a look into his year of success, and what lies ahead for the home-grown artist with skyscraper aspirations.
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Laurence, who possesses a crisp and abundantly effortless voice, draws inspiration from Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, and Sam Smith, tells us that he’s been using music as a tool to escape from the dredges of reality since his primary school days. Facing backlash from peers at school, Laurence taught himself the basic skills to play the piano on a full organ that belonged to his grandparents. Although he couldn’t reach the bass pedals on the organ at a young age, the singer quickly developed a love for learning music.
Growing up in a family where both his grandmothers had a special admiration for music, Duncan was encapsulated by the sounds of Elvis Presley and classic rock and roll, which informed his understanding of music as an outlet for creative release.
WATCH MORE: Duncan Laurence discusses escaping bullying with music
“Going to school was a hard thing for me, but coming back home was the nice thing every single day because when I went home and I went to my room I had my keyboard, and I’d play songs, and I’d turned all that negative stuff that I got at school into music and that’s how I truly fell in love with music… in music, you can kind of create your own world,” says the “Arcade” singer.
Duncan’s career skyrocketed after performing his hit song “Arcade” on the Eurovision stage for 200 million viewers in 2019. Not only did the musician become a household name in The Netherlands, but the artist was then afforded the opportunity to take his recording career to the next level.
Small Town Boy, Laurence’s debut studio album, dropped in 2020 and allows fans to have an all-encompassing introduction to the Netherlands native behind the show-stopping Eurovision performance. Filled with raw and candid motifs that serve as a narrative for Duncan’s life both before and after his Eurovision win, the singer says, “I hope when they play the album they hear stories, and they hear personal stories, and they get to know me a little bit more, but they also listen to it and kind of feel like, ‘hey, this guy is going through the same things as I am.’”
Focusing on the smallest details that come with falling in love, feeling grief, or feeling misunderstood, Duncan’s main message is to ensure that listeners “always find something positive in negativity.”
On his hit single, “Arcade” the artist zooms in on the sense of “feeling like a small-town boy in a big arcade” which also doubles as somewhat of a nomenclature for Laurence. The tracks on his first project have a sense of trying to reconcile his home-spun identity with his newly emerging sense of self that is grappling with success, “unanswered love,” and new love.
With a voice that is suited for everything from classic Pop production sounds, to more folk-centric and acoustic licks, to even soft rock elements, Laurence shares that he adores the work of artists from Noah Cyrus to Joni Mitchell. In the future, Duncan would like to work on a project with Cyrus. He also adds that his track “Umbrella” was derived from his love of Joni Mitchell and 1970s folk-rock.
For the release of his album, Ducan re-recorded “Arcade” and teamed up with FLETCHER to deliver a new take on the power ballad which brings the track to an even higher level of emotional sophistication.
Having met FLETCHER through work in Los Angeles, Ducan fell in love with the “Bitter” singer’s voice and the artist’s forthright sense of self. “Her voice is something so special, but also the fact that she is standing up for queer people. What I love is that she stands up for queer people by just being who she…that is everything I want to be too. I just want to stand up for who I am by just being who I am,” explains Laurence
In 2021 Duncan already has big plans for more new music, aside from itching to take the stage in U.S. cities and deliver live performances outside of Europe he explains that in regards to new work a lot more is coming. “I’m not even going to hold back on this answer,” exclaims Laurence. He continues, “there will be a lot of new music coming because I love releasing music. My first album took a while, but I heard everyone’s first album takes a while… I think it’s kind of because it’s the first impression you can make, but right now I’m like ‘first impression is made, let's go!’”
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