Top 2000

The Top 2000 is a radio program on the Dutch radio station Radio 2, and has been broadcast since 1999. It is broadcast annually at the end of the year, starting from 0:00 on Boxing Day (which the Dutch simply call "the second day of Christmas"), and continuing non-stop until 24:00 at New Year's Eve.

In these 6 days the 2000 most popular songs of all times are played. What those songs are is decided by the show's audience, through internet voting. The number 1 between 1999 and 2004 was the song "Bohemian rhapsody" by Queen. In 2005 the Dutch song "Avond" by Boudewijn de Groot reached number 1, but in 2006 Queen retook the number 1 position which it maintained in the 2007 edition.

Initiative

The top 2000 was created in 1999 as part of activities surrounding the passing into the new millennium. The idea was to finish the year 1999, and enter the year 2000, with the 2000 best songs ever made. From the start of 1999, the listeners of Radio 2 were asked to select a song along with any special memories attached to the song, and send it to Radio 2 via mail or email. This way, 2000 so called "Millennium-songs" were collected throughout the year 1999. At the start of November 1999, these songs were placed on a website, and the voting was started. This led to the Top 2000. A sort like Top 2000 (but then filled with music from the nineties and recent music) was held on the Radio station "Radio 538", which featured a much younger audience, but this was a one time happening.

The first broadcast of the Top 2000 was a huge success, probably because of the combination of nostalgia, quality and the different genres and time-periods of the songs, which all fit perfectly with the mood around the end of the millennium. Because of the success of the first broadcast, Radio 2 decided to make the program an annual happening, and each succeeding year the success of the Top 2000 has increased. Since its first broadcast, the program has been the most-listened-to program in the whole of the Netherlands. During the course of the broadcast in 2005, 6,2 million different people listened to it. This is a huge number, considering that the total population of the Netherlands is about 16,4 million. Polls taken in 2006 showed that at least 9,2 million people were planning to listen to the show.

In the years following 1999, the choice of songs for the top 2000 has been expanding rapidly through a new internet voting system where people could propose a new song to be added to the choice-list.

In 2002 a television show was added to the Top 2000, called the Top 2000 a Go-Go, which shows clips of parts of the list, along with interviews and other items. In 2005 the six parts of the show were watched by approximately 7,2 million people

Since 2003, Radio 2, along with NPS, a public TV-broadcaster, has been organizing the Top 2000 in concert, where famous Dutch artists are invited to sing one of their favorite songs, along with one of their own songs. The concert is usually broadcast on New Year's Eve, right after the top 2000 has ended. The 2005 version was watched by about 3,9 million people.

2005

In 2005, after 6 years, the Top 2005 received a new number 1. "Avond" by Boudewijn de Groot rose unexpectedly from the fifth place to the first place, driving the usual number 1, "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, to the second place.

Apart from the new number 1, the 2005 list featured a number of other improvements. During the voting, people could now add one song that was not in the list of songs to choose out. This way, a number of new, but also old songs entered the Top 2000 at high places. It was wondered whether certain songs, like "Nine Million Bycicles" by Katie Melua (which had been released only a few months earlier, and entered the charts at 23rd place), deserved to be at such a high place, and if they could hold onto that place in following years.

2006

In 2005, easily a million votes were cast in the top 2000, but in 2006 this record was shattered when 1,9 million people cast their votes for the list. After the votes were counted, it was revealed that Queen had retaken their number one position, which they had lost in 2005.

The top 10

External links

* [http://top2007.radio2.nl/page/homepage Homepage of the Top 2000]
* [http://www.omroep.nl/live/top2000radio.asx Webstream of the Top 2000 "(Windows Media)"]
* [http://www.top2000info.nl Top2000info "(All numbers from the history of the Top 2000.)"]