The Netherlands out of the Eurovision final. The Dutch candidate was excluded from the competition this Saturday, May 11, a few hours before its outcome. It all started on Friday afternoon, when confusion reigned in Malmö, Sweden, around a “incident” implicating Joost Klein.
In question, we learned this Saturday evening, a “threatening movement” towards a camera operator who occurred on Thursday, explained the Dutch broadcaster Avrotros. The Dutch competitor, who was rushing towards the boxes after the semi-final, “indicated on several occasions that he did not wish to be filmed. This was not respected,” according to Avrotros. “This caused Joost to make a threatening movement towards the camera operator. Joost did not touch the camera operator,” insisted the public broadcaster in a press release. “Many solutions” were proposed to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which “nevertheless decided to disqualify Joost Klein”, regretted Avrotros, describing the sanction as “very heavy and disproportionate”.
The EBU, which oversees the competition, had justified its decision earlier in the day by an investigation into a complaint filed by a member of the production team. “Swedish police have investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production team following an incident after her performance in Thursday night’s semi-final, the EBU explained this Saturday in a press release. While the legal proceedings continue, it would not be appropriate for him to continue to participate in the competition.”
“We have taken note of the disqualification [de Joost Klein] by the EBU. Avrotros considers this disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by this decision. We deeply regret this and we will return to the subject later. had reacted during the day Avrotros on Instagram. For its part, the NPO, the public audiovisual company of the Netherlands, considered the disqualification of “very drastic” and expressed his “disappointment”.
Head covered with the flag of his country
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU, organizer of the competition) informed on Friday that a “investigation [était] in progress” about the singer. Several hypotheses emerged on Friday regarding the open investigation, the Dutch singer having multiplied the escapades. The website of Dutch public television Nos, which selected Joost Klein, reported that at the end of the morning the day before, during the final dress rehearsal of the show which is to take place this Saturday at the Malmö Arena, the singer, who qualified the day before for the grand final with his parody song Europapa, participated in the “parade of flags”, which is to open the evening. But when his turn came on stage, in fifth position, he was absent, and it was the Israeli Eden Golan, also qualified Thursday evening, who continued with her rehearsal.
In the late press conference bringing together the ten qualifiers for Thursday’s semi-final, Nos continued, a Polish journalist asked Eden Golan if she thought her presence at the competition, after numerous requests for withdrawal and boycott linked to the war situation in Gaza, endangered the public and other participants. The Swedish journalist who presented the conference intervened to say that the candidate did not have to answer this question. Joost Klein, who then had his head covered with the flag of his country, took it off and exclaimed: “Why not ?” Eden Golan finally provided his answer. The images can be viewed on the Swedish television SVT website.
But the EBU investigation ultimately did not focus on this heated exchange. On Friday afternoon, daily life De Telegraaf also reported that Joost Klein had unfollowed the Eurovision account on Instagram, and deleted all images of the semi-final posted the day before. In the afternoon, the SVT reported a “physical confrontation between the artist and a photographer”.
Update this Saturday, May 11 at 12:25 p.m. with the exclusion of the Dutch candidate for an investigation opened after a woman from the production; at 6:55 p.m. with the reason for the incident.