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Dancing, singing and jumping: theatre schools record music video for Eurovision Song Contest
Benthemplein in Rotterdam is the setting for dance, music and rotating cameras. About 100 first-graders from theatre schools PT010 and MT010 will be in the spotlight this Thursday. And all for a place in the city program of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Groups of children spin in circles, wave their arms and sing along loudly to the Children's Song Festival song Speak Up. On the basketball court between the Grafisch Lyceum and the Jeugdtheater Hofplein, it is a colourful experience. The students wear floral trousers, coloured sweaters and some have dyed their hair blue or purple.

Today, the talents of both theatre schools unite to record a music video. Especially for this occasion, they have received permission from the municipality to be together with a hundred children, against the corona rules.

Meaning
The music video gets a place in the online city program for the Eurovision Song Contest. For 12-year-old Noémi and the equally old Koen, the song and the clip have a lot of meaning. "It shows that you can be yourself." Both are excited to be featured in the city program. "But you don't have to care about others," koen says.

Principal Priscilla Mahadew speaks of an emotional day. "The children have had online lessons for a long time. Now they can sing and dance together again. That's what they finally signed up for."

Speak Up
According to Mahadew, the video contributes to forming their own opinion. ,,The theme of the song is Speak Up. They can really start to feel that." They need to learn to go their own way, she says: "It's good that they're developing their own color."

The video clip is an initiative of the Open Up Talent project. Four musical talents from Rotterdam-Noord were selected to participate in the city programme, including the theatre schools.

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