Joan Franka

Joan Franka was one of the six participants selected for the National Song Festival 2012. With the song ‘You and Me’,), she won the contest. This allowed her to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku. To support the lyrics of ‘You and Me’, she performed wearing a Native American headdress.

Immediately after her victory at the National Song Festival in 2012, she sold the sales rights of the song ‘You and Me’ to John de Mol’s record company, 8ball Music. The winning song ‘You and Me’ debuted at number 1 in the Dutch Single Top 100 and number 3 in the 3FM Mega Top 50 the week after the National Song Festival.

Franka made headlines as controversy arose around her wearing the Native American headdress during her performance at the national song festival. The controversy stemmed from a statement by a Native American support group called Real Indian Nation, who claimed that Native Americans might protest if she wore the headdress again.

During the Eurovision on May 24, she received 31 points from the jury and 51 points from the public, achieving a fifteenth place, which was not enough to advance to the top ten for the final. 

After the contest, she had a conflict with her record company and had to pay off her contract for two years, leading to financial difficulties. In 2013, she worked as a street musician in Paris for a while. In mid-2014, she started studying at the Herman Brood Academy. In October 2014, her new song titled ‘Nigel’ was released. From 2015, she presented herself as Luba the Baroness and participated in Popronde 2016. In 2017, she completed her education at the Herman Brood Academy. In 2019, she released two new singles, “The end” and “Bad Boy”.
In March 2023, Joan teamed up with Valentino at the Flakkaboem Sessions, where she performed two new songs. One month later, she was part of the show Better Than Ever, where she told her side of the Eurovision story. She also released her album “Luba The Baroness”, an album she recorded already in 2017.