ANPJoost Klein in June 2023 during a concert in Tilburg
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 08:01
Artist Joost Klein will represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden next year. The rapper was chosen from a record number of entries that AVROTROS received, more than six hundred songs were submitted.
Chairman Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen listened to all submissions with the selection committee. “In our opinion, his entry has the greatest hit potential,” he believes. “You hear his well-known combination of party and nostalgia in the song. We think that Joost will put on a great act with his creativity and positively surprise the Netherlands and Europe.”
The song Klein will perform with will be presented later. Klein calls his participation an honor and a dream come true. “I used to watch it every year with my parents, glued to the TV,” he says in a response. “I will do everything I can to achieve the best result.”
German hit
The 26-year-old Klein combines happy harcore and pop punk into his own energetic style in songs like Hold music in Ome Robert. Last month he gave two sold-out concerts in AFAS Live, and he previously performed at Lowlands and Pinkpop.
Joost Klein already had a big hit in Germany this summer, Friesenjung:
When Frisian boyan adaptation of the Englishman in New York, which was number 1 for weeks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Klein already said that it was his dream to represent the Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest. “This has honestly been one of my goals from an early age. Eurovision is in my heart, kidneys and DNA. I make Eurovision music, that’s no joke!”
That open application led to a petition from radio station NPO 3FM to get Klein to the Eurovision Song Contest. Tens of thousands of people signed it.
Selection process adjusted
The entire selection process for the Dutch delegation was re-examined last summer by AVROTROS. This year the Netherlands did not have a successful participation in the song event. The duo Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper failed with their song Burning Daylight namely in the semi-finals, which had not happened with a Dutch entry since 2015.
Burning Daylight, was co-written by former winner Duncan Laurence, and, according to the committee, stood head and shoulders above all other entries. But artists Nicolai and Cooper had never performed together and Nicolai in particular, trained as an actress, had little stage experience.
This is how that performance in Liverpool went:
This is how Mia and Dion sang in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest
The song also proved challenging for their voices. Substandard performances followed in the preparation and criticism increased, of the duo, but also of the selection committee. Shortly before leaving for the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, it was decided to adjust the song: the song was raised one and a half steps so that it better matched the voice of the duo.
Afterwards, organizing broadcaster AVROTROS acknowledged that it had failed in, among other things, the preparation and guidance of the two. “There should have been more control over the entire process,” the director of the broadcaster said after an evaluation.
Partly for this reason, the selection committee was expanded this summer with musicians Jacqueline Govaert (known from the band Krezip) and Jaap Reesema. Van de Nieuwenhuijzen was also appointed as the so-called head of delegation. He knows the Eurovision Song Contest inside out, because in recent years he has worked for the organizations in Rotterdam, Turin and Liverpool. In that role he supervised all acts from the different countries, which he will now do for only the Dutch entry.
Stricter selection
In addition to expanding the selection committee, AVROTROS also made the selection a little stricter this time. For example, the last five artists had to come to a secret location a week and a half ago to perform their submission live twice in front of the selection committee.
The Eurovision Song Contest will be in Malmö next year because the Swedish Loreen with the song Tattoo won this year. The final of the song event will be on Saturday, May 11 next year. Whether the Netherlands reaches the final depends on their performance in the semi-finals on Tuesday or Thursday. The draw for those semi-finals is coming soon.
2023-12-11 07:01:17
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