Before he flew to Sweden, the Dutchman was among the bookmakers’ top three favorites. His song “Europapa” indeed fit the style of the Eurovision contest, and Joost Klein had already gathered many fans. But once at the competition venue, nothing went as planned for the singer. Because a first incident actually took place on April 30, during the first rehearsals, which had not been revealed until now.
A candidate excluded from Eurovision: a first in the history of the Competition
Two incidents with the same camerawoman
That day, after Klein rehearsed his song for 30 minutes, a production camerawoman began filming him as he left the stage. She was there to film a behind-the-scenes report on the competition. But this didn’t sit well with the Dutch representative, who shouted at him twice (in English) to stop filming. The camerawoman therefore explained to him directly her role and the fact that she was authorized to film, but Joost Klein did not hear it that way. “It’s still no,” he reacted, according to information from our colleagues.
This first altercation was escalated to the production managers, who first wondered about the fact that there were perhaps specific instructions regarding Joost Klein which had not been passed, but this was not the case. was not the case. They then discussed the situation with the Dutch delegation, and requested that its candidate behave more pleasantly. The situation seemed clearer after the discussions, and the camerawoman was informed that she could film as planned. She also claimed during the hearings to have received an apology from Joost Klein’s team.
A few days later, on May 8, the first rehearsals in front of the press took place. Joost Klein apparently did not know that the public was going to be present and wanted to keep his performance secret until the semi-finals, but his request was logically not granted. Once this first performance was completed, the interpreter of “Europapa” began to go down in the bookmakers’ predictions.
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It was the next evening that everything accelerated for the representative of the Netherlands. After a good performance in the semi-final, he came off the stage very smiling while the audience was “euphoric” in the room. The camerawoman from the first incident, who was there again for her documentary, then headed towards Joost Klein and his dancers to film her joy. But directly, the artist asked him: “Hey, why are filming?” (“Hey, why are you filming?”). As she later explained, the Swede initially thought Klein was joking, but that was not the case. Apparently furious, he approached her and she then cut off her camera. But the Dutchman did not calm down and made a threatening movement towards her, raising his arm towards the camera. The camera was damaged in the process, before Joost Klein walked away towards the dressing rooms, leaving the camerawoman shocked by what had just happened.
This second incident with the same person ultimately caused the exclusion of Joost Klein from Eurovision, as was reported in the media immediately, since the technician concerned filed a complaint. The Dutchman was initially suspended, although he had qualified for the final of the competition following his performance. An investigation was launched and the EBU finally disqualified the candidate on Saturday morning, which the Dutch delegation confirmed to the media in the early evening, a few hours before the final of the competition.
Last August, the Swedish Public Prosecutor’s Office decided to discontinue the investigation into the Eurovision incident due to lack of evidence. According to the Attorney General, it could not be proven that the singer had committed acts that caused “serious fear, or that the man had such intentions“.
