Joost Klein to the Eurovision Song Contest final, finishing fifth tomorrow

NOS News•today, 03:22

As expected, Joost Klein has advanced to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the Netherlands. He continued with his Europapa the Malmö Arena turned upside down. Israel’s much-discussed entry has also advanced to the final. Klein is fifth in that final.

He was sixteenth and last in the semi-finals and had the entire audience in support. He excited the audience for three minutes. Commentator Jacqueline Govaert called the performance “the biggest party of the evening”.

“I did it,” Klein said euphorically on his Instagram page immediately afterwards. A little later he said at the press conference that he was also happy with his family, who followed his performance in Leeuwarden. “That filled my heart with love.”

He also said he was thinking of “all the orphans in the world, all the people who forget others, the teachers who are bullied in class and the people without a home.”

Watch Joost’s performance here:

Joost Klein brings new energy to the Eurovision Song Contest

Reactions abroad are mixed. The VRT writes that Joost Klein has ‘completely met expectations’: “Europapa shows how Joost Klein really lives up to the hype.” Belgium itself unexpectedly dropped out.

The Austrian ÖRF is less pleased with the Dutchman: “It is a messily composed work of art, with extreme shoulder pads as a trademark.” Austria also qualified for the final with the song We Will Rave.

The Swedish Eurovision Song Contest follower of the newspaper Aftonbladet describes Klein’s act as a “Dutch clown with large shoulder pads”.

The organization of the Eurovision Song Contest announced last night that Klein will be fifth out of 26 countries in the final tomorrow. The Netherlands drew lots producer’s choice. This meant that the organization determined which starting position Klein would receive.

Sweden is the first to act as host country. After the Netherlands is Israel, which also qualified last night. There has been a lot of buzz about singer Eden Golan’s performance for weeks. Until late last night there were protests in Malmö by people who believe that Israel should not participate in the festival because of the war in Gaza.

This is the order for Saturday’s final:

Despite these protests, Israel is doing better and better with the bookmakers. The country was in eighth place earlier in the evening, but is in second place after the semi-finals. Europapa is now eighth, at the top is Croatia.

At the winners’ press conference afterwards, there was another striking moment, when a journalist asked the Israeli Golan a critical question. A Polish reporter asked her if she had ever considered that her presence posed a danger to the other artists and the audience.

Golan seemed at a loss for a moment, after which the man in charge of the press conference intervened by saying that she did not have to answer that.

“Why not?” Klein, who was sitting next to her, jumped in. Golan then replied: “I think the EBU is taking all the safety measures so that this is a safe and united place for all of us. So I think it is safe for everyone.”