Duncan de Moor, professionally known as Duncan Laurence (born 11 April 1994), is a Dutch singer-songwriter.
Laurence is best known for representing The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, winning with the song "Arcade". With his victory, Laurence gave The Netherlands their fifth overall win in the competition, and their first since Teach-In's "Ding-a-Dong" in 1975. He would later return to the competition as a songwriter in 2023, working behind-the-scenes on Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper's entry for that year's contest.
Prior to Eurovision, Laurence competed on The Voice of Holland under the mentorship of Ilse DeLange, who previously represented The Netherlands at Eurovision (as part of The Common Linnets) in 2014, finishing as runners-up to Conchita Wurst. He did not win the series, getting knocked out during the semi-finals; eventual winners O'G3NE would also represent their country at Eurovision in 2017, not faring as well as Laurence himself did.
Laurence is the first (and to date, only) Eurovision-winning act who can claim to have written a K-pop song, as one of the credited co-writers of "Closer" by TVXQ. "Arcade" also became the first Eurovision song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 since Gina G's "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit" in 1996, and the highest charting one since ABBA's "Waterloo", peaking within the top 40 at #38.
Discography:
- Worlds On Fire (2020)
- Small Town Boy (2020)
- Skyboy (2023)
Duncan Laurence's music & career provides examples of:
- Album Title Drop:
- "Beautiful"
When my world's on fire, you call
When my world's on fire, you kill the flames- "Arcade"
Small town boy in a big arcade
I got addicted to a losing game - But Not Too Foreign / Stage Names: He used his real last name (de Moor) while competing on The Voice of Holland, but changed it to the more anglicized Laurence upon launching his music career.
- Foreshadowing: During the final, he was interviewed in the green room on what he would say if he won. Also, the first douze points from the jury was awarded to The Netherlands.
- Irony: Won Eurovision (a game) with his song "Arcade", which is a song about how his love is a losing game.
- One-Word Title: Skyboy.
- The Runner-Up Takes It All: Lost to O'G3NE during their season of The Voice of Holland but went on to win Eurovision, whereas they missed out on the top ten in eleventh place.
- On the topic of Eurovision. During the voting of 2019, Laurence was neither the public's or jury winner, landing in second and third place respetively. But because the two groups placed the other's winner lower, Laurence ended up getting the most points.
- Surpassed the Teacher: His mentor in The Voice of Holland, Ilse DeLange, is best known outside Netherlands for finishing second in Eurovision 2014 as one half of The Common Linnets. Five years later, Duncan went one better and won the whole thing in Tel Aviv.
