Investigation into Eurovision contestant’s Israel-related incident escalates

2024-05-10 19:14:16

The war between Hamas and Israelspecific file

The participation of the singer who represented the Netherlands in the final, Saturday in Sweden, was suspended on Friday on an “investigation” carried out by the organization of the competition, which could be linked to the presence of Israel.

Confusion reigned on Friday afternoon in Malmö, Sweden, around a “incident” affecting Joost Klein, the Netherlands’ Eurovision candidate. At the beginning of the evening, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU, organizer of the competition) announced that its “an investigation [était] in progress” about the singer. “We have no further comment at this time and will update in due course,” The short press release concludes.

The Dutch public television website Nos, selected by Joost Klein, gives further details. Friday at the end of the morning, during the final dress rehearsal of the show that will take place on Saturday at the Arena Malmö, the singer, who qualified the day before for the grand final with his parody song. Pope of Europe, participate in the “parade of flags”, which is to open the evening. But when it was his turn to go on stage, in fifth place, he was absent, and it was Israeli Eden Golan, who had also qualified on Thursday evening, who continued his practice.

The Numbers add information. At the late press conference that brought together the ten qualifiers for Thursday’s semi-final, a Polish journalist asked Eden Golan if she thought her presence in the tournament, after numerous requests for withdrawal and boycott related to the state of war in Gaza, endangering 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, whose head was then covered with his country’s flag, took him off the ground and exclaimed: “Why not?” Eden Golan finally gave his answer. The images can be seen on the Swedish television SVT website.

However, there is nothing to suggest that the EBU’s investigation is related to this heated exchange. Friday evening, the ordinary life The Telegraph 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 “a physical confrontation between the artist and the photographer”.