On March 3rd,  the song ‘De Diepte’ was finally released. S10 will sing it at the 2022 Eurovision contest, in Turin. But who is S10? What is she trying to communicate through her music, and especially with this song? Since I have been a big fan of S10 for a while now, I’ve decided to break down everything you need to know about our Eurovision contestant.

Who Is S10?

S10, the stage name of the 21-year-old Stien den Hollander, is a Dutch artist who uses her music to share personal stories. She combines singing, rap, and spoken word. Through her songs, S10 expresses honesty and vulnerability.

She has been making music from a very young age, releasing her first music when she was only sixteen. But even more remarkable is probably her lyrics, whose primary theme is mental health. Her first two mini-albums, Antipsychotica and Lithium, are even called after medication for mental disorders. Her self-called ‘emo-rap’ phase conveyed many of the struggles she experienced in her teen years.  

As the years went by, her uniqueness paid off and her music gained popularity. By the time she was seventeen she had been labeled to a record company, Noah’s Ark. This allowed her to grow further in the music industry and release her first real debut album, Snowsniper, awarded as best alternative music album of the year.

With her latest album, Vlinders, S10 has made singing a bigger part of her music. The album also contains some brighter-themed songs and marked some high spots in the Dutch music charts.

Thanks to her latest releases, S10 had made her way into the music industry. She has collaborated with great rappers and singers from the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2021, she achieved her biggest success so far, Adem je in. In this song, which reached millions of streams on Spotify, she talks about the people that feel like home to her. 

Music To Help

Since S10 has been through difficult times herself, she makes a point of helping others through her music. Not only with her songs but by giving them something to look forward to – concerts.

Since S10 has been through difficult times herself, she makes a point of helping others through her music. Not only with her songs but by giving them something to look forward to – concerts. To do so, she decided to give away part of the tickets for a show in Carré for free and to allocate them to young people who are struggling with mental health. “Music is everything to me. I hope that with my music I can mean something in the lives of others, precisely because it means so much to me.” – she said.

De Diepte

And now she is joining the Eurovision contest with ‘De Diepte’ which translates as ‘The Depth’. She describes the song as a love letter to her sadness.

“It’s about the fact that my sadness is allowed to be there. I sing it actually as my “love”, there is a love in the music video too, but it’s actually about sadness that is allowed to be there. It’s about the Stien that was there several years ago, who was sad. But also about the Stien when I was six, when I performed plays in front of my whole family and my mum’s friends and danced on the music which we had at home. It’s actually a love letter to that.”

“Everyone experiences events in their lives that are difficult. That’s something we share together as humans and I hope you feel less alone listening to the song.”

(Watch the interview and live performance of De Diepte here)

She was deeply moved by the release of the song, as well as proud of herself. She wants to let the younger Stien and people in the same place know that things will get better and that everything will be alright, eventually. With music and things to look forward to, you can come a long way, she said to the people watching the first release of her Eurovision song.

By now, she is doing very well. She has found herself to be truly happy. But there is always going to be sadness in our lives, and with ‘De Diepte’ she wants to tell people that that’s alright. That is the message she wants to send to Europe.

A Dutch Song

One special thing about S10’s song is that it’s entirely in Dutch. The Netherlands has not had a Dutch singing entry since 2010 when Sieneke sang ‘Ik Ben Verliefd’. So it has been a while since we brought our own native language to the Eurovision stage. And even though the lyrics might be hard to follow, S10 is convinced that the deeper meaning of the song will reach everyone.

I, myself, am very excited about this entry. I’m curious to see how well we are going to do. Nonetheless, I think this is a Eurovision entry The Netherlands can be proud of.

Find all her music on Spotify here. 

Watch here ‘De Diepte’ videoclip on Youtube  

Cover:  pixaby

Edited by: Cecilia Begal