S10.

WORDS THAT LINGER.

Sometimes the power of a voice lies in what it leaves open. S10 can deliver a line almost casually and then let it hang, as if the final word cannot yet bear a full stop. Her singing has a distinctive grain. The vowels are given space, the pronunciation stays close and the melody can move within a few counts from restrained to wide open.

You can hear that in De Diepte, but also in the much broader work around it. S10 moves between rap, electronic pop and songs that rest on a simple melody. Her Dutch does not neatly adapt to a single genre. It can clash, float or sound almost spoken. It is precisely that freedom of movement that makes her voice so recognisable.

Those who only know her from the Song Contest enter through one door. Behind it lies a world of early EPs, dark beats, strong collaborations and pop that allows more and more colour. The personal is found in all those forms. It becomes audible in the way she delivers a sentence, even before you have followed exactly what the song is about.

FIRST THE OWN ROOM.

Stien den Hollander was born on 8 November 2000 in Hoorn. As a teenager she began writing, recording and releasing her own music online. The early EPs Antipsychotica and Lithium already show how directly she could translate experiences into music. With Noah's Ark, that work found a place within a label world with deep roots in Dutch hiphop.

That background remains important. Hiphop offers space to put words in their own rhythm, to cut a sentence short or let it run over the beat. For S10, that forms a foundation on which singing, melody and atmosphere can grow. She does not have to choose between telling and singing; often you can hear the transition happen.

With Snowsniper in 2019, that became a full-fledged album. The production gives her voice a cool environment, in which low tones and open spaces do a lot of work. The album received the Edison in the Alternative category in 2020. That recognition came well before the European television audience got to know her.

BUTTERFLIES IN AN ELECTRONIC BODY.

On Vlinders in 2020, her music takes on more directions. The voice can lie softly against a beat and a moment later cut right through the arrangement. In Handen Van Mijn Moeder, the title alone carries a very concrete image. That is how S10 often works: a small, recognisable detail opens up a larger emotional space.

There is a pleasant kind of tension between the artificiality of electronic sounds and the intimacy of her delivery. A synthesizer can sound smooth or cold; in contrast is a voice in which the rough edges are allowed to remain. That makes the sound personal without every song having to be recorded bare.

Adem Je In then showed how easily that uniqueness could reach a larger pop audience. The melody has a clear appeal, while the phrasing remains typically S10. The remix with Frenna and Kevin also emphatically placed the song once again in the hiphop world where part of her musical roots lie.

THE DEPTH, WITHOUT TRANSLATION.

In 2022, S10 represented the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. De Diepte, written with Arno Krabman, finished eleventh in the final and became a number-one hit in the Dutch Top 40. For that enormous international stage, she continued to sing in Dutch.

The song uses repetition in a very direct way. The melody returns, the voice seeks the same place again and the arrangement builds tension without pushing away the lyrics. Even in the wordless singing passages, a clear emotional movement remains audible. You do not need to understand every Dutch sentence to recognise the hesitation and the longing.

The performance kept the attention on her. That suits a song in which the voice is the most important gesture. For a listener who knows her earlier work, the surprise might lie mainly in the scale: something that can sound so close also proved it could carry an enormous stage.

AN ALBUM TO LISTEN TO FURTHER.

Later in 2022, Ik Besta Voor Altijd Zolang Jij Aan Mij Denkt was released. The long title feels like a thought that must be spoken in one breath. The album gives De Diepte a larger environment and shows how many different forms her songwriting can handle.

In Nooit Meer Spijt, with Froukje, another energy emerges. Two recognisable voices find each other in a pop song that moves outwards. Their collaboration later received new chapters with Ik Haat Hem Voor Jou, Hart In Brand and the EP Frok en Stien. The joint vinyl release Froukje Loves S10, S10 Loves Froukje bundles favourite songs from their work and joint songs; it is a compilation.

Those connections make it clear how smoothly S10 moves between musical worlds. Her voice hardly needs to disguise itself to fit alongside a rapper, a pop singer, or a band. In May 2026, the bilingual single Safe and Sound was released with Oscar and the Wolf, once again a different environment for that recognisable sound.

FIRE GETS MORE COLOURS.

For her fourth studio album, Mijn Haren Ruiken Naar Vuur in 2025, S10 worked with Jordan Fish, former keyboardist and producer of Bring Me The Horizon. That sounds like a big leap on paper. In the music, they find each other precisely in melody, electronics and the possibility to let a feeling become large.

The title track has a direct pop power, while the production allows more movement and bright colours. There can be sadness in a song and yet light can shine through it. Have Fun and Weer Verliefd already show in their titles that her world makes more room for curiosity, longing and the awkward beginning of something new.

ONE THING YOU DIDN'T KNOW.

Jordan Fish had long been a musical hero of S10 before their collaboration. In studio sessions, she regularly played his work to explain which direction she was looking for. When he eventually contacted her himself, a distant reference became a real conversation partner behind the knobs. That history also makes their album a beautiful story about listening: sometimes the music you love grows directly into what you create yourself.

Read on via EUROVISION SONG, the overview DUTCH POINTS and the joint album story with Froukje. On the S10 ARTIST PAGE you will find her records and five listening tips.

Discover the musical context in NEDERPOP..

Explore at SJELF S10 – Snowsniper (1LP Vinyl, Reissue), S10 – Vlinders (1LP Vinyl, Reissue), S10 – Mijn Haren Ruiken Naar Vuur (1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Noah's Ark), S10 – Mijn Haren Ruiken Naar Vuur (1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Top Notch), S10 – Ik Besta Voor Altijd Zolang Jij Aan Mij Denkt (1LP, Coloured Vinyl), Froukje & S10 – Froukje Loves S10, S10 Loves Froukje (1LP, Coloured Vinyl). The product pages show the vinyl releases and the LP format.