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Dutch Top 2000 facts – Top2000feitjes website

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Notable chart entries

What happens on the list when something happens: deaths, campaigns, controversy and records. Each fact comes with its source.

Where a fact comes from a single source, it says so. Figures we calculated ourselves from the database are marked as such. For people and court cases, we only report what the sources write.

1999

  • In the early years the running order of the broadcast was nudged slightly: when vote counts were equal, long, little-known songs were scheduled for the night, and every hour had to start with an upbeat song. Former station chief Toering admitted this in 2021 and said it stopped after a few years. Source: hartvannederland.nl, welingelichtekringen.nl, en.wikipedia.org

2005

2006

2007

  • In 2007 Radio 2 excluded campaigns for Ede Staal, among others, because he had received little attention in earlier years. Toering said the Top 2000 must not become a plaything of a pressure group. He received a lot of criticism for it, but considers it one of his best decisions. Source: en.wikipedia.org, speakersacademy.com

2009

2010

2011

2013

  • After the death of Lou Reed in October 2013, his 'Perfect Day' rose from position 160 to 34. In the same edition, according to NL Times, a record 3.3 million people voted, about 60% of them men. Source: nltimes.nl

2015

2016

  • After the deaths of David Bowie and Prince, their presence grew: Bowie had 26 songs (eight more than a year earlier) and reached the top 10 for the first time with 'Heroes' at position 7. Prince had 17 chart entries, seven of them new, with 'Purple Rain' at 13. Source: npo.nl
  • Adele's 'When We Were Young' was the biggest climber, from 1703 to 144; Bowie's 'Starman' was the highest new entry at position 270. Normaal's 'Deurdonderen' was the biggest Dutch climber. Source: npo.nl
  • David Bowie went from 18 songs (2015) to 26 (2016) and Prince from 9 to 17, with collaborations and bands such as Prince and the Revolution included (under their own names only: Bowie 14 to 22, Prince 2 to 9; own calculation based on the database).

2017

2020

2021

  • Procol Harum's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' jumped from 153 to 3, the favourite song of the murdered crime reporter Peter R. de Vries. Almost all radio stations played the song on the day of his funeral; this was named radio moment of 2021. Source: nltimes.nl, nltimes.nl, nos.nl
  • Golden Earring's 'Radar Love' entered the top 10 for the first time in 2021, shortly after the band announced it was stopping because of George Kooymans' illness. Source: nltimes.nl, nltimes.nl
  • In December 2021 NPO Radio 2 decided to simply keep playing the songs of Marco Borsato in the Top 2000: it is the listeners' list and 'the court decides whether someone is guilty', according to an NPO spokesperson. Source: nieuws.nl

2022

  • In January 2022, the NPO stations, Qmusic, 100%NL and the Talpa stations, among others, stopped playing music by Marco Borsato and Ali B (after revelations about The Voice of Holland came out); 3FM and FunX already weren't playing their music. Source: hartvannederland.nl
  • Coldplay's 'Fix You' reached No. 5 in 2022, the band's highest position ever, and Queen's 'Love of My Life' (10) was the first other Queen song ever to make the top 10. Tom Goris said young people are taking over the Top 2000. Source: nos.nl
  • For voting in the 2022 Top 2000, listeners had to confirm their vote by email again, a step that had previously been dropped to keep voting easy. Radio 2 wanted to counter possible manipulation, after the voting on the NS Publieksprijs was halted at the end of October because of large-scale manipulation. Source: nieuws.nl

2023

  • Maan and Goldband's 'Stiekem' was the highest new entry at position 180 and Arctic Monkeys' '505' the biggest climber (up 1,611 positions, to 381). Source: hartvannederland.nl
  • According to an Erasmus researcher, that year's Top 2000 still contains eight songs by Marco Borsato (in 2015 there were 18); she links this to little airplay and no new music, and sees a loyal fan base in the remaining votes. Source: eur.nl

2024

2025

  • After Marco Borsato was acquitted on 4 December 2025, six of his songs climbed by more than 1,000 positions, with 'Zij' as the biggest climber (1566 to 116) and 'De Waarheid' at 35 (up 1,393). Six songs were in the top 100; the NPO says it is the first time an artist with so many songs has climbed so far. Source: nos.nl, nhnieuws.nl, hartvannederland.nl
  • Mediahuis stations stopped playing Borsato for a few months after 2021 but are playing him again now; the NPO says DJs are free to play his music, although they were reluctant to put it on playlists because of mixed listener reactions. Source: nos.nl
  • 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was No. 1 for the 22nd time in 2025, 'Piano Man' reached No. 2 for the first time, and Golden Earring's 'Radar Love' climbed from 20 to 9 after the death of George Kooymans. Source: nos.nl, dutchnews.nl
  • ‘De Waarheid’ by Marco Borsato was at 1428 in 2024 and at 35 in 2025: a rise of 1393 positions (own calculation based on the database).

The Top 2000

The Top 2000 is an annual listener chart from NPO Radio 2: the 2000 favourite songs of the listeners, broadcast between Christmas and New Year, from number 2000 to number 1. In 2026 it is the 28th edition.

How is the list put together?

Listeners vote in advance for their favourite songs. NPO Radio 2 counts the votes and turns them into the list. In 1999 you still voted with a coupon from the free newspaper Spits; now you do it via the NPO Radio 2 website.

How did it start?

Radio 2 came up with the list around the turn of the millennium and originally meant it as a one-off. It became so popular that it returned in 2000, and every year after that. More about this on the History page.

The broadcast

Since 2010 the broadcast has come from the Top 2000 Café at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Beeld en Geluid) in Hilversum. In 2025 the broadcast lasted 168 hours, with number 1 just before midnight on 31 December. Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was number 1 in 22 editions.

Read more

About The Jumping Fox

Listen live

Listen live to NPO Radio 2 here. The sound only starts after a click.

On a computer or iPad you detach the live block with the icon to the left of full screen, or by dragging its top line outward. Grab the window by its title bar to move it, and pull the grip at the bottom right to make it larger or smaller (double-click the grip for the default size). The cross puts it back in the page.

The music keeps playing while you navigate this site; on the other pages the little speaker is at the top right. Reloading a page or leaving the site stops the radio.

The stream runs a few seconds behind the radio itself. Prefer to listen on nporadio2.nl? (opens in a new tab)

About this site

A personal project by Pim Uijttewaal: all Top 2000 lists since 1999 in one database, with facts, records and statistics. It is an extension of Alweer dat nummer? (opens in a new tab), my radio statistics for Dutch radio stations.

Listen live

You can also listen live to NPO Radio 2 here, and the music keeps playing while you navigate the site. For the song that is playing now you can see straight away whether and where it appeared in the Top 2000, with a link through to the artist and the song, plus the NPO Radio 2 programme and the presenter.

On a computer or iPad you will also see a camera icon in the live player, to the left of the gear. It opens the live studio images of NPO Radio 2 (Top 2000 Café) in a window on the page. You choose from three sizes, drag the window wherever you like and close it with the cross, while the radio just keeps playing. If you choose Watch live in the menu, the radio switches off and the window opens straight away with sound.

Tip! Want to enjoy the Top 2000, or just a regular Radio 2 day, even more? Drag the video and the radio next to each other. That way you see the stories about the artist and the record right away, with every song.

Navigating

On a computer or iPad you can place the windows as you like. Grab a window by its title bar and drag it wherever you want; with the arrow keys on the title bar you can nudge it too.

The live studio images come in three sizes: small, medium and full screen. Grab the little grip at the bottom right and you can pull the window larger or smaller; the picture keeps its proportions. Escape takes you back out of full screen. The cross closes the window.

You detach the live block with the radio using the icon to the left of full screen, or by dragging its top line outward. It then becomes a floating window that stays put as you navigate through the site. If you grab the grip at the bottom right, you can make the window larger or smaller; the size is remembered. The full-screen icon fills the whole screen. The cross puts the block back in the page.

When the radio window and the studio images are both open, you can drag them independently of each other. The window you click comes to the front.

From radio to picture

If the radio is playing and you click the camera icon in the live block, the site asks whether to switch the radio off and let the video take over the sound. If you choose Yes, the radio goes off and you hear the sound of the studio images, with a volume slider and a mute button. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.

If you choose Watch live in the menu, the site does it all in one go: the radio goes off, the picture opens with sound on the left, and the radio window detaches and sits next to it on the right. Both windows start just below the LP at the top left and together fill the width of the screen. After that you drag and resize them as you like. If you then click a menu item, that page opens as a window above the two windows; use the cross or Esc to close the page and see the windows again. Even if the picture was already open, Watch live puts both windows back in that fixed place. If the radio is not playing, the picture also opens with sound. On a phone there is only the radio and the facts: the studio images and detaching windows are for computer and iPad.

Search

At the top right, next to the “About this site” button, and at the bottom of every page, there is a magnifying glass. Use it to search the whole site: by artist, song, presenter or fact. Typos are fine, and a result immediately opens the matching explanation while the radio keeps playing. With the / key (or Ctrl/⌘ + K) you can also open the search without a mouse.

Under the Top 2000 results is the Basement League: artists and songs that never made the Top 2000, labelled Never charted. An artist from it has their own card with all songs by year of release. If an artist is also in the Top 2000, you see the Basement League songs under their regular card. If you only want the Top 2000, untick Also Basement League above the results.

Listen to a song

Click a song and its song card opens with the stories behind it. At the top of that card are two icons: Apple Music and Spotify. For almost every song the Apple Music icon takes you straight to the song itself; the Spotify icon searches for it. Both open in a new tab, so the radio keeps playing.

What have I done?

  • All editions from 1999 to 2025 combined: 27 lists of 2000 positions each.
  • The top 100 of every edition compared position by position with other sources. No real discrepancies were found, only spelling variants of titles.
  • Facts and records calculated from that data, and news facts looked up, always with a source.

Where does the data come from?

  • The lists themselves come from the Excel database by Erwin Groenhof (top2000database.wordpress.com). The original source is NPO Radio 2.
  • Checked against: top2000nl.com, Wikipedia, Ziggo and news reports.
  • Photos only come from Wikimedia Commons, with the creator's name and licence included.
  • The Basement League (artists and songs that never made the Top 2000) comes from MusicBrainz and Wikidata (both free to use) and Wikipedia. That data is maintained by volunteers and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

A look behind the technology

The lists are stored in a SQLite database; the pages themselves are generated statically with Jekyll. For the near-live section, my own collector checks what NPO Radio 2 is playing every 30 seconds and matches it to the position in the list. It is the same technique as on the radio page.

What has changed? An overview of the biggest changes to the site, with dates.

Want something like this made?

This site is an example of what I build. More in the explanation of the database, or get in touch via The Jumping Fox.

Logo and rights

The Top 2000 logo belongs to NPO Radio 2. This site is not run by or on behalf of NPO.

About The Jumping Fox

Top2000feitjes.nl

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The Jumping Fox

The top2000feitjes.nl website was developed by Pim Uijttewaal, owner of The Jumping Fox: smart IT solutions and apps. A robust site with smart features and database integration.

The most notable features:

How all of this works, right down to the database, you can read at About this site. This window stays open.

Also always available for IT-related assignments.

On thejumpingfox.nl you can read more about the company and find the other apps too.

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What has changed?

The biggest changes to the site, with dates. The newest comes first.

Friday 6 November 2026

Thursday 5 November 2026

Wednesday 4 November 2026

Tuesday 3 November 2026

Monday 2 November 2026

Switch the live radio off and take over the sound of the video?

If you choose Yes, the radio switches off and you hear the sound of the studio images. If you choose No, the radio keeps playing and you watch without sound.
SQLITEone file

What is SQLite?

SQLite is a database in one ordinary file. There is no separate database server around it: the program that needs the data opens the file and queries it, in the language SQL. That makes it light, fast and reliable, and easy to move or back up: you simply copy the file.

Why here?

The entire Top 2000 since 1999 fits in a file of about 5 megabytes: 27 editions of 2000 songs each, making 54,000 chart entries for almost 5,000 different songs. A few queries to that database bring out the records and facts on this site, such as the highest new entries, the heavy hitters and the one-hit entries. The results are baked into static pages in advance, so visitors never notice the database and the site stays fast.

A well-known technique

SQLite is free software (public domain) and one of the most widely used databases in the world. Your phone, your browser and many apps quietly use it for their own data. I use the same approach for the radio statistics, and for the Basement League: a SQLite file of about 460 megabytes with over 4 million songs, in which search takes a fraction of a second.

This is just an example

This site shows what I can build. I can make something like it for you, for your business, club or subject:

I build it, maintain it and make it available to you, under your own name or domain.

Need a quality website? Or custom software? I make that through The Jumping Fox. Tell me what you want, and I will help you think it through.

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