Michelle Courtens



Michelle Courtens (born 3 August 1981), performing as Michelle, is a Dutch singer, who is known from her performance in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001.

She was born in Venray, The Netherlands. On 2 March 2001 Michelle competed in the final of the Dutch National Song Contest, with the alternative pop song "Out On My Own". She won the final with a score of 84, 30 points more than the contestant finishing second. Both the audience and the professional jury awarded her the most points, respectively 50 and 34.

In the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark however, she scored low. Despite her historic performance (sitting and bare footed), she only received sixteen points, resulting in an 18th place.

In March of that year, Out On My Own reached the 9th place in the Dutch Top 40; unique for a Eurovision song. In 2002 she tried to revive her career with the release of the single "Coming Up Roses", but the single was hardly noticed and flopped. Currently, she is working as a singing teacher.

On 16 September 2006 Michelle married her girlfriend Carlijn.