Eurovision Song Contest
“Friesenjung” Joost is going to the ESC with “Europapa”.
Joost Klein is entering the ESC race with “Europapa”. photo
© Robin Van Lonkhuijsen/ANP/dpa
Joost Klein is there in Malmö. His dance number is a “hymn to Europe and his father, who died early,” says the Dutchman.
After his big hit “Friesenjung”, the Dutch singer Joost Klein now wants to conquer Europe with “Europapa”. With the dance number, the 26-year-old will represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö, Sweden, in May.
On Thursday, Klein presented the song in a TV special. “Welcome to “Europe, I’ll stay here until I die,” Klein sings in Dutch and with not entirely clean rhymes. It’s a hymn to Europe and his father, who died early, said the Frisian with the hip, platinum-blonde hair and mustache.
“It’s actually kind of a letter to my father,” Klein said. “He taught me that people came up with their own boundaries and that you can actually invent your own world.” The father died when Joost was only twelve years old.
Klein calls it a typically Dutch dance number that also featured hardcore techno DJ Paul Elstak and rapper Donnie.
But first he has to get through the semi-finals on May 9th. The final is on May 11th. Klein has many fans, especially in Germany. His dance version of the Otto Waalkes hit “Friesenjung” landed at number 1 in the single charts in Germany and Austria.