Joost Klein Shines in Eurovision Semi-Final, Qualifies for Final in Fifth Place

As expected, Joost Klein has advanced to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of the Netherlands. He continued with a A European Pope the Malmö Arena turned upside down. Israel’s much-debated entry has also advanced to the final. Klein is fifth in that final.

He was sixteenth and finally in the semi-final and the whole audience was in his support. He stunned the audience for three minutes. Reporter Jacqueline Govaert called the show “the biggest party of the evening”.

“I did it,” Klein said euphorically on his Instagram page right after. A little later he said at the press conference that he was also happy with his family, who followed his performance in Leeuwarden. “That filled my heart with love.”

He also said he was thinking of “all the orphans in the world, all the people who forget other people, the teachers who are bullied in class and the homeless.”

Watch Joost’s performance here:

Reactions abroad are mixed. The VRT writes that Joost Klein has ‘completely met expectations’:”A European Pope shows how Joost Klein really lives up to the hype.” Belgium itself dropped unexpectedly.

Austria POWER he’s not so happy with the Dutchman: “It’s a work of art done fake, with real shoulder pads as a trademark.” Austria also qualified for the final with the song We will rave.

The newspaper’s Swedish Eurovision fan The evening paper describes Klein’s act as “a Dutch clown with big shoulder pads”.

The organization of the Eurovision Song Contest announced last night that Klein will be in fifth place out of 26 countries in the final tomorrow. Holland drew lots producer’s choice. This meant that the group decided which starting position would be given to Klein.

Sweden was the first host country. After the Netherlands is Israel, who also qualified last night. There has been a lot of buzz about singer Eden Golan’s performance for weeks. Until the end of last night there were protests in Malmö by people who believe that Israel should not participate in the festival because of the war in Gaza.

Here is the order for Saturday’s final:

Despite these complaints, Israel is doing better and better with the promises. The country was in eighth place earlier in the evening, but is in second place after the semi-finals. A European Pope now the eighth, at the top is Croatia.

At the winners’ press conference afterward, there was another surprising moment, when a journalist asked an urgent question about Israel’s Golan. A reporter from Poland asked her if she ever thought her presence was a threat to the other artists and the audience.

Golan seemed lost for a moment, and then the man in charge of the press conference intervened by saying she didn’t have to answer that.

“Why not?” Klein, who was sitting next to him, jumped. Golan then responded: “I think the EBU is taking all the safety measures so that this is a safe and united place for all of us. So I think it’s safe for the everyone.”