Eurovision 2024: A Drama-Palooza
Eurovision, the yearly song competition between (mostly) European Countries is having a time right now. Most of the drama so far is surrounding Dutch entrant Joost Klein:
UPDATE: RTL news (a legit Dutch media network) has just announced Joost has been disqualified and will not be participating in the Finale tonight. Wow.
Click to viewBullet points to get to the goss:
- There has been tension amongst some of the contestants within the contest due to the participation of a particular country.
- The tension seemed to bubble over during one of the Eurovision press conference, when a Polish reporter asked Israeli entrant, Eden Golan, "Have you ever thought that by being here, you bring risk and danger for other participants and the public?". The moderator of the conference cut in saying "You don't have to answer that". And Dutch entrant, Joost Klein (who was sitting on the panel with something draped over his head before removing it), responded with "Why not?".
- Since then Joost Klein (who is a 2024 fan favourite) was removed from the roster for the Jury Show (he was meant to go on after Lithuania and before Israel), the flag from his dressing room has been removed, he deleted the last 24 hours of his Eurovision Insta stories, and he has unfollowed the official Eurovision instagram.
- Now there are rumours (not yet officially confirmed) that Joost was removed from Jury Show for assaulting a female photographer. Further rumours are saying this photographer provoked Klein by saying something bad about his parents (who both died a year within each other by the time he was 14 and who are dedicated at the end of his song). These claims are still being investigated.
- There is video of Israeli journalist , Dov Gil-Har, seemingly provoking someone from Joost and his team by asking, "Mr. Klein, where were you? We missed you on stage?" and filming his entourage who ask not to be filmed (video can be seen in the first source, I'm having trouble figuring out how to embed twitter vids sorry!).
- Italian entrant, Angelina Mango, did an impromptu speech at the Eurovision press centre and then started singing Imagine, by John Lennon. Is this a nod to the lyrics of the songs orrrrr another famous rendition of the song sung by certain people? It's a mystery.
- When Italy revealed their televoting for the semi finals, it also showed the voting percentages of each country and the results were something... Israel received 39% of all televotes with The Netherlands following at 7.3% Was this a leak or accidental?
- In non-drama related goss, Latvia surprised themselves by qualifying for the finals. They have not qualified going into the finals since 2016 and have the unofficial wooden spoon award for coming last the most in the semi-finals.
- I'm sure there is more goss, so if you have some please discuss!!
Are you watching this years Eurovision?
Sources: Joost drama, Joost’s performance, The question with saucy commentary, The question again, Imagine, IT tele results, RTL disqualification announcement