Joost Klein tonight with three minutes of pure cheerfulness in the Eurovision Song Contest

• Jorn Kompeer

  Domestic editor in Malmö

Heels on happy hardcore, together with a dancing bird and flashing images on the screen. It is not necessarily what television viewers have been used to from the Netherlands during the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years. A polished pop song is Klein’s hit Europapa certainly not, while the Netherlands had a subscription to that in the last submissions. By choosing Joost Klein, organizing broadcaster AVROTROS is taking a completely new tack tonight.

This year the energy bursts from the stage, with an act that can best be described as three minutes of pure cheerfulness. But also with an emotional layer, such as at the end where Joost Klein addresses his deceased father through the camera. There are also references to Klein’s deceased parents at other times, for example on the screens behind the stage.

Klein and his friends, two of whom are also on stage, tried to keep as much of the performance secret as possible in recent weeks. Occasionally they let something go, such as when co-creator of the act Gover Meit spoke about “a new form of the moon landing. People will not believe that this is physically possible”.

The speculation came to an end yesterday when the press and public were invited to see the act in its entirety for the first time.

In that act it is striking that Klein and his team use everything that the mega television studio in the Malmö Arena has to offer. The performance begins with a camera directly at the top of the room, so that the viewer can see that the cross-shaped stage has turned into the face of Joost Klein. Then he himself is in the picture, waving at the camera with the text “I Love you all”.

He makes that contact with the viewers and the audience more often. He calls on the audience several times to join him. At the same time, the viewer sees a jumble of images passing by on the large screen behind Klein: from a globe and a sea of ​​fire to German currywurst.

Ultimately, it is impossible to miss that this performance builds to a climax, when Klein and his friends start chopping. Meanwhile, the 90s beats sound through the arena and the crowd starts screaming.

This is what those heels looked like yesterday during the dress rehearsal:

Chopping through Joost Klein’s dress rehearsal

Anyone who goes to watch especially for Joost Klein will have to be patient, because his turn will only be sixteenth and very last tonight. Then the telephone lines open and viewers decide which ten countries they want to see in the final. The results will follow more than half an hour after Klein’s performance.

While it was still very exciting last year whether the Netherlands would reach the final, the signs are now more favorable. Since the presentation of Europapaat the end of February, the number shot up with bookmakers, who predict which songs are most likely to win. Europapa started at position 22 out of 37, but quickly rose into the top 10, with position three as the highest ranking. In recent days the number dropped a bit, to sixth place.

A place in the final for Joost Klein seems guaranteed, but that does not mean there is no competition.

Nemo from Austria has also been classified in this semi-final. With the number TheCode Nemo tells about the figurative journey the artist took to be himself. At the same time, everything is happening on stage, with a turntable on which the artist spins in circles.

And then tonight there is the charged performance of singer Eden Golan from Israel. There has been discussion for months about the country’s participation. Today, large protests have been announced in Malmö, potentially attracting tens of thousands of people.

As for the music, many Eurovision experts think that Israel’s song Hurricane can count on many sympathy votes and will probably reach the final with ease.