Joost Klein, the Dutch entrant for this month’s Eurovision Song Contest, denies all the charges which led to him being thrown out of the competition, his lawyer Jan-Åke Fält has told Swedish media.

Klein, whose song Europapa was one of the competition favourites, was disqualified on Saturday after an incident at Thursday’s rehearsal between him and a camerawoman. He now faces being charged with “criminal intimidation”, according to Swedish media.

Swedish police said earlier that they were accelerating the prosecution process because they consider the evidence to be strong and because the offence is not more serious.

But Fält told local reporters Klein denies wrongdoing. “As I understand it, there was an agreement between him and the event management,” he said. “It was a sensitive occasion where he was not to be photographed leaving the stage. He should have been met just by his team but there was photographer standing there. He asked the person to stop filming.”

The photographer, says Fält, did not listen to Klein who then pushed the camera away to get rid of it. “He denies having threatened this person,” the lawyer said.

Fält said a preliminary trial date had been set for early June but that the police are not yet finished with their investigation.

“We have been informed of the investigation and now have the opportunity to comment on it,” he said. “We will request that some Dutch people appear as witnesses…I think the chances of him being acquitted are good.”

The European Broadcasting Union issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the Dutch version of events did not correspond with the witness accounts.

“Joost’s behaviour was in clear breach of contest rules, which are designed to ensure there is a safe working environment for all staff and to protect the production,” the EBU statement said.

> Croatia's Baby Lasagna, who took second place at the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, says he is giving to charity the 50 thousand euros he will receive from the Government as an award for helping to promote Croatia and enhance its international recognition.

I'd previously assumed that the logo that showed up on the title screens for Moroccanoil was just another state owned oil company putting sponsorship money into random things, but the haircare ad at the end of yesterday's broadcast let me to do some investigating.

It turns out Moroccanoil is an Israeli company and I haven't seen many people talking about the potential conflict of interest here that might explain the EBU's shady behaviour this year.

I did find this article about them from 2015 which links to a video of sales reps from the company partying in what "may be" the occupied west bank. They also do appear on various BDS lists.

There is also this article from The Sun which does connect this to Eurovision this year, but it's from the sun so honestly that just makes the whole thing seem less credible.

Given the lack of information that I've found, I'm wondering what people here think? Do you know anything else about this? Do you think the EBU's actions are related to this sponsorship? Do we even care because their behaviour was shitty whether their motivation was from the sponsorship or more directly political?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/12031158

> image description: > STAND FOR THE FLAG (soldier saluting in front of enby flag) > AND KNEEL FOR THE CROSS (soldier kneeling in front of swiss flag)

Europapa got 182 out of 216 possible points and scored the second place in the second semi-final. Only a bit less than Israel, this would have probably meant a top 5 placement in the finale.

Just like with the semi-finals, this is the live thread for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. As there is (to my knowledge), no Lemmy equivalent to https://reddit-stream.com/, the best alternative is refreshing the website about once after each song. This should still be okay for now as this community is relatively small. Sort by New to see the newest comments or additionally click on the Chat button to break the replies apart and even show the newest replies.

Thanks to @[email protected], there are some links for the Grand Finale: The Grand Finale Livestream on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ckGRHJ-J9G4

National broadcasts:

• German broadcast: https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/eurovision-song-contest/am-11-05-esc-2024-der-finalabend-live-aus-malmoe/das-erste/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS80NmVjOWQ0Yi03ZTJkLTQ2N2UtOGJjNy03NzUzMDdmOWUwMWE
• Swedish broadcast: https://www.svtplay.se/video/KVk3NNg/eurovision-song-contest/eurovision-samegillii-esc-2024-med-samisk-kommentator
• Finnish broadcast: https://areena.yle.fi/1-70127659

Perhaps one of these might not be geoblocked, but not guaranteed)

And some background information:

• Final running order: https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2024-final-running-order
• Backstage at the turqoise carpet: https://youtube.com/watch?v=J9O_Ba8PfqU

Just now, AVROTROS has released a statement about what happened on Thursday night with Joost Klein:

>We have taken note of the disqualification by the EBU. AVROTROS finds the disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by the decision. We deeply regret this.

>An incident occurred after last Thursday's performance. Against clearly made agreements, Joost was filmed when he had just gotten off stage and had to rush to the greenroom. At that moment, Joost repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed. This wasn’t respected. This led to a threatening movement from Joost towards the camera. Joost did not touch the camera woman. This incident was reported, followed by an investigation by the EBU and police.

>Yesterday and today we consulted extensively with the EBU and proposed several solutions. Nevertheless, the EBU has still decided to disqualify Joost Klein. AVROTROS finds the penalty very heavy and disproportionate. We stand for good manners -let there be no misunderstanding about that- but in our view, an exclusion order is not proportional to this incident.

>We are very disappointed and upset for the millions of fans who were so excited for tonight. What Joost brought to the Netherlands and Europe shouldn’t have ended this way.

>AVROTROS

Horrendous is the word of the day in the Press Room.

> Alessandra Mele, who was scheduled to award Norway's points during the show, has withdrawn from the task, according to broadcaster NRK. > > A press release from the Norwegian outlet says Mele, who represented her country in the competition last year, withdrew due to the "inflamed situation in Malmo this year". > >Mele and her management team have not yet commented on the development. > > NRK's ​​channel host Ingvild Helljesen has taken over Mele's role, it said in the statement.

Bambi Thug (Ireland), Nemo (Switzerland) and Marina Satti (Greece) were absent from the final rehearsal, according to reliable Eurovision nerd byJannik:

https://mastodon.social/@byJannik/112422609958078857

RTÉ reports that Bambie has called on the EBU to address Kan's commentary during their performance.

https://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2024/0511/1448614-bambie-thug-angry-at-israeli-eurovision-commentary/

"Contending that the commentary breached the rules [...] Bambie Thug said Israel should no longer be allowed to participate in the competition."

>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.

>He also noted that Bambie Thug liked to "speak negatively about Israel". "But we can talk about that later. Prepare your curses," he said.

>A spokesperson [for the irish broadcaster] said, however, that RTÉ had not called on Israel to be removed from the competition. >In a statement, the EBU said: "We've spoken to KAN, the Israeli broadcaster, about this matter and reiterated the importance of all commentators respecting all the artists taking part in the competition and abiding by the rules and regulations of the event."

STATEMENT FROM THE EBU

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.

Spanish Journalist who shouted "Free Palestine" at Dress Rehearsal claims he was "intimidated" by fellow journalists from Israel

According to several news outlets, Joost Klein will not perform in the Jury show of the ESC for the Netherlands. It’s still open whether he will perform in the Grand Final or not.

A Dutch article additionally states that > Joost Klein is not allowed to participate in the jury show of the Eurovision Song Contest. The investigation into the incident that came out earlier on Friday has not yet been completed, AVROTROS reports. Klein does not miss out on any points: the professional jury assesses his performance in the second semi-final.

Rai has released a statement on the matter:

"Rai specifies that it was a technical problem following which some data - completely partial - were mistakenly highlighted in the graphics of the Italian vote."

"Rai promptly apologized to the EBU leaders and believes that this inconvenience does not affect the regularity of the final result. The published votes are in fact incomplete."

As there has been some interest in a live thread such as the ones on r/eurovision, here is the live thread for the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Sadly, I didn’t find any Lemmy equivalent to https://reddit-stream.com/. But as this community is still pretty small, I think refreshing the website once after each song should be okay. Sort by New to see the newest comments or additionally click on the Chat button to break the replies apart and even show the newest replies.

Credits to u/UsernameVeryFound on Reddit

> Two singers who performed as part of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden on Tuesday were reprimanded by event organizers for wearing pro-Palestinian symbols. > > Opening act performer Eric Saade wore a kaffiyeh—a headscarf that can be a symbol of Palestinian solidarity—on his wrist during the show Tuesday. And Irish contestant Bambie Thug told reporters that same night that contest organizers “ordered” them to change their stage make-up before their semi-final performance because of its pro-Palestine references, according to BBC.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15157225 >The musician was seen wearing a keffiyeh on his arm, a symbol commonly used to show support for Palestine. > > In reponse, a representative of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement: “All performers are made aware of the rules of the contest, and we regret that Eric Saade chose to compromise the non-political nature of the event.” > > Despite facing criticism for its decision not to exclude Israel and worldwide protests condemning the organizers' choice, the competition maintained its stance. > > “Politics does influence the event from time to time,” said Paul Jordan, a contest enthusiast and researcher who was part of its communications team from 2015 to 2018, in an interview with CNN. > > However, he noted, “the presence of Israel has become such a big issue (that) I think it’s going to overshadow the event.” > > The news comes during Israel’s seizure and closure of the Rafah crossing in Gaza, which has raised concerns that already-scarce food and medical supplies will be further depleted and lead to a “catastrophic” humanitarian disaster.

Meme by u/aaronrodericus

Original post on Reddit

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As there has been some interest in a live thread such as the ones on r/eurovision, here is the live thread for the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Sadly, I didn't find any Lemmy equivalent to https://reddit-stream.com/. But as this community is still pretty small, I think refreshing the website once after each song should be okay. You can click on the Chat button to sort all comments by newest, even replies to other comments.