2024-05-10 15:30:02
It is traditional for the winners to give a press conference after each semi-final and also after the final of the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). They usually take place late at night. This was also the case early on Friday morning, when the ten qualified finalists were interviewed by the press. A Polish journalist asked the Israeli Eden Golan a particularly perfidious question: “A personal question, have you never thought about the fact that you are endangering the other artists here by your presence in public?”
He was alluding to the calls for a boycott against Israel, the protests that reached their climax on Thursday with a large demonstration in Malmö. There were calls for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision. A number of artists were showered with hate and hate on social media for their participation; twenty-year-old Eden Golan even received death threats and therefore largely hid in her hotel. Other artists had also been warned not to go out in public alone.
Eden Golan hesitated for a moment, then her head of delegation said loudly that she didn’t have to answer the question if she didn’t want to. “Why not?” shouted the Dutchman Joost Klein. Eden Golan replied that they were all in Malmö for one reason and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had taken every precaution to ensure that this was a safe place for everyone. Klein, who is one of this year’s favorites with his European anthem “Europapa”, which advocates togetherness and open borders, was visibly annoyed by the answer. He demonstratively pulled the Dutch flag over his head as a sign of his displeasure. At the beginning of the week he had already refused to pose for a photo with Eden Golan.
Why wasn’t Joost Klein present?
The first dress rehearsal was on Friday. Joost Klein was in the hall and also walked across the stage for the so-called flag parade. When it was his turn to start number five and the props for his performance were already ready, after a short break number six unexpectedly came onto the stage, of all people, the Israeli Eden Golan. Things then continued as planned, with Lithuania, Spain and Estonia.
A short time later, the EBU announced that it was investigating an incident. “We are currently investigating an incident that was reported to us involving the Dutch artist. He will not rehearse until more information is available. We have no further comment on this and will update when the opportunity arises.” Joost Klein’s responsible broadcaster, AvroTros, also issued a statement afterwards: “The EBU has actually launched an investigation following an incident. We are awaiting the outcome of this investigation and do not wish to comment until then.”
Apparently it’s not about the press conference, but rather an incident that the EBU only found out about during the dress rehearsal. There is speculation that Joost Klein wanted to make a statement on the stage of the Malmö Arena in front of hundreds of journalists at the dress rehearsal, which was rejected by the EBU. The EBU’s traditional press conference planned for the evening with the so-called Big Five countries, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as host Sweden, was canceled at short notice. The participants preferred to concentrate on their rehearsals, the EBU said.
#Dress #rehearsal #Dutchman #Joost #Klein