Evrovizija

The Dutch artist Joost Klein will not be competing in the Grand Final of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Swedish police have investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production crew after an incident following his performance in Thursday night’s Semi Final. While the legal process takes its course, it would not be appropriate for him to continue in the Contest.

We would like to make it clear that, contrary to some media reports and social media speculation, this incident did not involve any other performer or delegation member.

We maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour at our event and are committed to providing a safe and secure working environment for all staff at the Contest. In light of this, Joost Klein’s behaviour towards a team member is deemed in breach of Contest rules.

The Grand Final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest will now proceed with 25 participating songs.

Ireland’s Eurovision Song Contest entrant Bambie Thug has called on the competition’s organisers to address commentary made on Israeli television before their performance in Tuesday’s semi-final.

Contending that the commentary breached the rules of the Eurovision, Bambie Thug said Israel should no longer be allowed to participate in the competition.

"There’s a lot more anger and a lot more drive in me now," Bambie Thug said in an interview with RTÉ News.

On Tuesday, a commentator on Kan, the Israeli public service broadcaster, warned TV viewers with children that Bambie Thug’s performance of their song, Doomsday Blue, would be "the most scary" of the night.

"There will be a lot of spells and black magic and dark clothing, Satanic symbols, and voodoo dolls, like we are at Cats Square in Jerusalem in the mid-90s," the commentator said, referring to a well-known public square in Jerusalem that was central to the city’s nightlife in the 1990s and synonymous with goth culture.

The commentator said there was "some controversy" in Ireland about the song, referencing a petition calling on RTÉ to disqualify Doomsday Blue as Ireland’s entry.

He also noted that Bambie Thug liked to "speak negatively about Israel".

"But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses," he said.

In their interview, Bambie Thug said the commentary, which aired on Israeli public service broadcaster Kan, had been highlighted to them.

They said it would motivate increased anger in their performance in tonight’s grand final.

"I’m angry with other teams breaching their rules of the [European Broadcasting Union], and still being allowed in," they said.

"So there’s definitely a war drum sounding in my heart to push the performance even more than I have done before."

The following transcript is based on translations of the commentary for RTÉ News by two native Hebrew speakers.

Commentator 1: Wow, what is about to happen now with Ireland? Wow, wow. What is about to happen now with Ireland?

This is the song Doomsday Blue. They [Ireland] have had a more subtle past with the likes of Johnny Logan, who you will see on stage later. But what’s going to happen this evening?

The song is Doomsday Blue by Bambie Thug, and now is the time to get your children away from the TV screens, because we are about to see the most scary song of the night. There will be a lot of spells and black magic and dark clothing, Satanic symbols, and voodoo dolls, like we are at Cats Square in Jerusalem in the mid-90s.

Commentator 2: Wow, there might be 200 people at most that get this reference

Commentator 1: Anyway, there is some controversy about the song in Ireland, too. There is a petition against Bambie Thug, which claims that they are making a mockery of Irish culture.

Commentator 2: You said ‘they’, as Bambie Thug wants to be referred to in the plural – as part of their non-binary identity.

Commentator 1: They [Bambi Thug] also like to speak negatively about Israel. But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses.

Commentator 1: Wow, this is a very strange entrant compared to what we are used to from Ireland.

Joost Klein's "Europapa" re-enters the global Spotify chart at #131 with 1.608 million streams. pic.twitter.com/mP0eF81Wlc

— chart data (@chartdata) May 11, 2024

Attention all Eurovision fans in New York and beyond! The Consulate General of Israel in New York has taken over Times Square with a special message: Vote #6 for Eden Golan and her song "Hurricane" this Saturday! ️ #Eurovision2024 #EdenGolan pic.twitter.com/st3ZoiHLFa

— Israel in New York (@IsraelinNewYork) May 10, 2024

United for Eden

Tonight Eden Golan will take the stage at the @Eurovision finals and perform “Hurricane”.

Now’s our chance to show Eden just how much we love her.

Don’t forget to vote #06 pic.twitter.com/yryNP4FCLc

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) May 11, 2024

Spoiler:

AVROTROS has released a statement following Joost Klein's #Eurovision disqualification pic.twitter.com/KYDgpXF5Hx

— ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord) May 11, 2024

Finnish Eurovision representative REFUSES to announce 12 points judges score to Israel during rehearsal.

The woman instead says ‘Ireland’, leading to the host giving her a chance to correct herself- but instead she again says ‘Ireland.’

Host: “I think we have somewhat of a… pic.twitter.com/nDnXNUofZY

— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) May 11, 2024

Eurovision is removing booing and adding fake cheers for israel. They're warping reality in favour of propaganda. Really dystopian shit #eurovision pic.twitter.com/08spkT1x0Z

— Ada (from verilybitchie) (@theliterarybi) May 11, 2024

Portuguese broadcaster RTP confirmed moments ago in a live broadcast that Portugal was part of the emergency meeting with the EBU last night. Also confirms that the delegation saw the Israeli team harassing other contestants/delegations #Eurovision https://t.co/Ts75iU9Viu pic.twitter.com/uxYNRpTzEa

— Tiago Serra Cunha (@tiagoserracunha) May 11, 2024

this year's Marcel Bezençon Awards winners.

Press Award: Rim Tim Tagi Dim
Artistic Award: The Code
Composer Award: The Code pic.twitter.com/wsTmPcTFlR

— Eurovision News (@EurovisionNewZ) May 11, 2024

Taco Zimmerman, head of AVROTROS, was interviewed. I translated it because it has some interesting information. Source is 1Vandaag (NPO1).

Journalist: Why do you think the disqualification was disproportionate?

Taco Zimmerman: Well, that's the impression we got. There was indeed an incident that took place after the second semi-final. Joost Klein left the stage and even though existing agreements were made that he wouldn't be filmed, he was still filmed by the camera woman. Joost asked her two times to stop filming and then he (Joost) made a threatening movement towards the camera. He did not touch her. This incident led to a report being made which made the EBU decide to disqualify us (AVROTROS) and Joost.

Journalist: Did Joost Klein say anything in the confrontation?

Taco: That I do not know.

Journalist: Was it a violent gesture from Joost?

Taco: I cannot judge that because I wasn't there. I am basing this on eye witnesses who were there, including Joost himself.

Journalist: And what do they say? About a possible violent gesture?

Taco: They said there was a threatening movement towards the camera. Nothing more.

Journalist: Now the EBU says: "We have a zero-tolarance policy in regards to inappropriate behaviour". So they're saying there was inappropriate behaviour.

Taco: Yes.

Journalist: What do you think about that?

Taco: I understand that policy and we also think the same. But it brings the question: to what extend do you punish that? We think disqualification goes too far. They (EBU) also could have, like normal people, talked to us to try to fix this situation instead of disqualification. This we find very disappointing, especially with the other solutions we offered to the EBU.

Journalist: What other solutions did you offer?

Taco: Multiple ones. For example; we offered that Joost would publically apologize, or that we would bring forth a statement together and similar solutions. We really tried to avoid disqualification. We did everything, and I mean everything to get Joost on the stage tonight.

Journalist: Has there been contact with the alleged victim, the camera woman?

Taco: No. She did not want contact with us. We find that very dissapointing. We would have liked to, but she refused any contact. She refused contact with us (AVROTROS) and Joost himself.

Journalist: Do you have contact with Joost Klein? How is he doing?

Taco: He is devastated. He was looking forward to taking the stage and performing for his fans that believe in him in Europe and sadly he can't do this. So he's very devastated.

Journalist: And I also can judge from your reactions that you're quite angry about what happened.

Taco: Yes, I find the punishment disproportionate. This situation could have been fixed in a very different manner. We could have sat around a table like grown adults to think about something where Joost could have atleast performed. And again; I was not there but again, the punishment was way too harsh. That's what I think. Maybe more details will follow.

Journalist: So a lot has happened behind the scenes. Why do you think the EBU had such an extreme reaction to this incident?

Taco: I find that very hard to judge. It seems like that from this year on they've instated a zero-tolerance policy. But I can only guess. I find it very hard to judge why the EBU made this decision. And in every conversation I had with them the past two days I also did not get a clear answer to this question.

Journalist: Will you take action against EBU?

Taco: Yes, of course. It's already happening. We are appealing this decision. Though this will not help Joost. We really would've liked to see him perform tonight.

Malena Ernman
Born: November 4, 1970 (age 53 years), Uppsala, Sweden
Children: Beata Thunberg, Greta Thunberg
Spouse: Svante Thunberg (m. 2004)
Parents: Lars Ernman, Eva Ernman