Latest news with #Europapa
RTÉ News
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
New Dutch Eurovision act thinks organisers listened after 2024 disqualification
Dutch singer Claude Kiambe has said he thinks the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have "listened", following his country's disqualification in 2024. Last May, the Netherlands' contestant Joost Klein was kicked out by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) just before the final over allegedly making verbal threats to a female production worker. Swedish prosecutors dropped the criminal case against Klein months later, and he called the experience of being disqualified "terrible". Klein had been one of the favourites to win at Malmo 2024 with the upbeat Europapa. This time, 21-year-old singer Claude hopes to fare better with C'est La Vie, a blend of French, his first language, and English, that reflects on his early aspirations and his mother's support after being born in the "unsafe" country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reflecting on the inspiration, he said "my mother used to tell me sometimes s*** happens to life", and you should be "thankful" for what you have. It is a message filled with a "lot of energy, a lot of positivity" that he wants to bring to Eurovision. When asked about last year's disqualification, Claude said: "We don't know what happens backstage, but I can talk about what I saw. "It was amazing what Joost did." He added that it "was so nice to see how he was connecting everybody through the song" and he really hopes "to see him doing great and doing the best". Claude added: "He was disqualified, and we don't know what happened, so I also don't know what happened, but what he did on stage, it was really inspirational." Dutch broadcaster Avrotros previously called the decision on Klein "unnecessary and disproportionate", and called for a meeting with the EBU to discuss the disqualification and backstage issues. The EBU conducted a review and pledged that a new code of conduct along with a raft of new measures would help "protect" the wellbeing of artists following a number of controversies last year. Claude said: "I've heard about the adjustments they made, and I feel like they also listened to everything what happened, and they were like, 'well, if there was something we could do about this, we are going to do it'. "So from what I've heard about… (there are) areas that cannot be filmed and stuff going on, I really (support) those adjustments." He has already had a breakthrough in the Netherlands, after the release of his 2022 debut single Ladada (Mon Dernier Mot), which has had more than 60 million listens on Spotify. Claude said the sudden rise to fame was "actually really crazy" as he was working at a restaurant when he reached the top of the charts in the Netherlands. "There was like a turning point where people were coming to see me work, and I liked those worlds separate to each other," he said. "It was combined, and it was also sometimes it was hard to do my job. Like… people that wanted to know everything about me and I was like, 'I have to bring other coffees to other tables'." The singer, who grew up in Enkhuizen, and currently lives further south in Amsterdam, said the fans got in the way of him waiting tables and sent him messages complaining when he was not working. After realising he "cannot do my job properly right now", he decided to focus on his music full time, following the release of more songs. "So it was actually really fun to do, but at a certain point I had to stop with the bar and restaurant, but I often visit them, and I've been there also a few times to just go work like a shift with my old colleagues and stuff like that," Claude said. He teased that his performance during the first Eurovision semi-final on Tuesday, 12 May would be "emotional" and involve dancing. "So I don't know what my body is going to think when the camera is going to be pointed towards me. I (might be) thinking about, 'Oh, 300 million people are watching'," Claude said. "I hope I will enjoy the moment." The music video from the singer, who speaks French, Dutch, English and Congolese language Lingala, sees a young boy represent him while watching Conchita Wurst win for Austria at 2014's Eurovision.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Dutch Eurovision act thinks organisers listened after 2024 disqualification
Dutch singer Claude Kiambe has said he thinks the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest have 'listened', following his country's disqualification in 2024. Last May, the Netherlands' contestant Joost Klein was kicked out by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) just before the final over allegedly making verbal threats to a female production worker. Swedish prosecutors dropped the criminal case against Klein months later, and he called the experience of being disqualified 'terrible'. Joost Klein performing Europapa for the Netherlands at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden (Sarah Louise Bennett/EBU) Klein had been one of the favourites to win at Malmo 2024 with the upbeat Europapa. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement This time, 21-year-old singer Claude hopes to fare better with C'est La Vie, a blend of French, his first language, and English, that reflects on his early aspirations and his mother's support after being born in the 'unsafe' country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Reflecting on the inspiration, he said 'my mother used to tell me sometimes shit happens to life', and you should be 'thankful' for what you have. It is a message filled with a 'lot of energy, a lot of positivity' that he wants to bring to Eurovision. When asked about last year's disqualification, Claude said: 'We don't know what happens backstage, but I can talk about what I saw. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement 'It was amazing what Joost did.' He added that it 'was so nice to see how he was connecting everybody through the song' and he really hopes 'to see him doing great and doing the best'. Claude added: 'He was disqualified, and we don't know what happened, so I also don't know what happened, but what he did on stage, it was really inspirational.' Dutch broadcaster Avrotros previously called the decision on Klein 'unnecessary and disproportionate', and called for a meeting with the EBU to discuss the disqualification and backstage issues. The EBU conducted a review and pledged that a new code of conduct along with a raft of new measures would help 'protect' the wellbeing of artists following a number of controversies last year. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Claude said: 'I've heard about the adjustments they made, and I feel like they also listened to everything what happened, and they were like, 'well, if there was something we could do about this, we are going to do it'. 'So from what I've heard about… (there are) areas that cannot be filmed and stuff going on, I really (support) those adjustments.' He has already had a breakthrough in the Netherlands, after the release of his 2022 debut single Ladada (Mon Dernier Mot), which has had more than 60 million listens on Spotify. Claude said the sudden rise to fame was 'actually really crazy' as he was working at a restaurant when he reached the top of the charts in the Netherlands. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement 'There was like a turning point where people were coming to see me work, and I liked those worlds separate to each other,' he said. Claude's song is C'est La Vie (Tim Buiting/Avrotros) 'It was combined, and it was also sometimes it was hard to do my job. Like… people that wanted to know everything about me and I was like, 'I have to bring other coffees to other tables'.' The singer, who grew up in Enkhuizen, and currently lives further south in Amsterdam, said the fans got in the way of him waiting tables and sent him messages complaining when he was not working. After realising he 'cannot do my job properly right now', he decided to focus on his music full time, following the release of more songs. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement 'So it was actually really fun to do, but at a certain point I had to stop with the bar and restaurant, but I often visit them, and I've been there also a few times to just go work like a shift with my old colleagues and stuff like that,' Claude said. He teased that his performance during the first Eurovision semi-final on Tuesday, May 12 would be 'emotional' and involve dancing. 'So I don't know what my body is going to think when the camera is going to be pointed towards me. I (might be) thinking about, 'Oh, 300 million people are watching',' Claude said. 'I hope I will enjoy the moment.' The music video from the singer, who speaks French, Dutch, English and Congolese language Lingala, sees a young boy represent him while watching Conchita Wurst win for Austria at 2014's Eurovision. Girl group Remember Monday are representing the UK at Eurovision in 2025 and are automatically through to the final on Saturday, May 17 as one of the 'big five' along with France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Time to Get Over Eurovision? ‘Hell No!' Joost Klein Says.
In the run-up to last year's Eurovision Song Contest final, Joost Klein was amped for victory. Klein, a Dutch pop star, was a favorite to win with 'Europapa,' a madcap song in which he raps over a bouncy beat and circling piano riff about a journey through Europe. The track ends in a hyperfast dance break, but the upbeat song also has a melancholy side: Klein wrote it as a tribute to his father, who died when Klein was 12. Then, just hours before the finale, Klein's chance to honor his father vanished when Eurovision organizers threw the singer out of the contest, saying he had threatened a camerawoman. When Klein learned he was in trouble, he was backstage and dressed up in a comically large blue suit for a rehearsal. He begged to talk to the upset camerawoman, in a desperate bid to change his fate. But his pleas went nowhere: Klein was out. Nearly a year has passed, and the incident doesn't appear to have hurt Klein's career. He now has over three million monthly listeners on Spotify, and in February, he released a new album, 'Unity,' to rave reviews in the Netherlands. After finishing a string of large European dates, this week he is embarking on his debut U.S. tour, including two shows at Irving Plaza in New York. Still, in a recent interview in London before a show, Klein, 27, was stuck under the cloud of his Eurovision misadventure. 'Everyone's like, 'Hey, your career grew,'' Klein said. 'I don't care.' 'Everyone's like, 'Hey, your career grew,'' Klein said. 'I don't care.' Credit... Jeremie Souteyrat for The New York Times The disqualification still 'stings,' he said, and he didn't expect to get over it soon. Klein said that both his parents died before he was 14, and it took him more than a decade to process their deaths. He feared that shrugging off the Eurovision fiasco could take just as long. His new album features several tracks brooding on the incident. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Guardian
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘If all I cared about was a career, I'd make listenable music': Joost Klein on Eurovision, scandal and having the last laugh
Joost Klein is arguably the first artist to triumph at the Eurovision song contest without actually performing in the final. In May last year, the 27-year-old Dutch wild child 'gabber pop' rapper was disqualified from the world's largest live music event just hours before he was due to perform Europapa to 170 million TV viewers around the globe. This song – a chaotic but catchy ode to the father he lost as a teenager, and to the free movement of people ethos his father instilled in him – was touted as a favourite. But instead of gearing up for his big moment, Klein spent seven hours that day sitting in his changing room in a reflex-blue, Ursula-von-der-Leyen-meets-Vivienne-Westwood suit with gigantic shoulder pads, fearing he was about to be arrested – on live TV – over a 'backstage incident' after the semi-final the previous evening. Swedish host broadcaster SVT filed a police complaint accusing Klein of 'threatening behaviour' by pushing a female camera operator's equipment. Entertainment careers have been cancelled for less. Yet now, in the spring of 2025, Klein is celebrating the release of his new album Unity with an 18-stop, 35,000-ticket tour that doesn't just loop in Friesland and Wallonia but also includes sold-out shows in London and LA – a historic first for someone 'yapping in Dutch', as he puts it. Europapa is diamond-certified in the Netherlands and has racked up 170m streams on Spotify – almost twice as many as the song that officially won Eurovision, Swiss singer Nemo's The Code. 'People tell me, 'Oh, this disqualification was actually really good for you, because your career got so big,'' Klein says in a mocking voice, in his first English-language interview since Eurovision came crashing down around him. 'But if all I cared about was a career, I would actually make listenable music. I would make music that the masses want to hear. Yet I make what I want to hear. And sometimes that's what the masses want after all, because zeitgeist works in that way.' 'Unlistenable' is an overstatement, but it's true that the paradox of Klein's appeal is that much of his musical output sounds like utter trash at first listen. Gabber is the Dutch variant of hardcore dance music that grew out of Amsterdam and Rotterdam nightclubs in the early 1990s. It means 'friend' in Amsterdam slang, but it was never the kind of friend your parents would have considered a good influence. On most of the songs on Unity, a relentless kickdrum beat is distorted and pitched at a breakneck speed of 140-190bpm (Klein says he started to listen to gabber on his one-hour cycle ride to school 'because it makes you pedal faster'). The vocals are either sped up to sound like Mickey Mouse, or involve Klein spitting child-like rhyming couplets – 'Evil corporations ruling all the nations' – sometimes in English or German but mostly in guttural, rasping Dutch. Unity features a collaboration with German eurodance titans Scooter that is about as aesthetically refined as a wet T-shirt competition in Magaluf. Yet Klein's version of happy hardcore is infused with deep sadness: where you expect euphoria, there is melancholy. 'I feel like a trampoline, I feel powerless and seething,' Klein mumbled on his first hit single, 2022's Wachtmuziek. 'I feel so, so alone, but I've felt that way since I was a child,' he raps on Unity's Discozwemmen, an unlikely collaboration with 64-year-old Dutch lo-fi rocker Spinvis. Growing up in the village of Britsum in the Frisian flatlands, Klein started making YouTube videos inspired by Bo Burnham and 'Weird Al' Yankovic when he was nine, though his father disapproved and made him delete them. When his father died of cancer when he was 12, 'the first thing I did was make 20,000 videos for YouTube with silly dance moves,' Klein recalls. 'The internet was the only way out.' His mother passed away after a cardiac arrest a year later and he was raised by his older siblings, whose dates of birth he has tattooed on his knuckles. 'If you lose your parents at a young age there's not a lot that you remember,' he says. 'And the things you do remember become bigger and more powerful in your heart or brain.' Which is where Eurovision comes in. One of Klein's formative childhood memories was of lying on the couch with his parents and watching Finnish heavy metal band Lordi win Eurovision in 2006. 'I saw the impact Eurovision had on me on that couch. And I thought, for some reason, 'That's maybe how I can use my life.'' Friends warned him about the complicated politics of the event. 'But I was just blind with a melancholy and love for the old Eurovision.' The reality of taking part in Eurovision was sobering. Some of the international broadcasters' delegations that accompany the artists backstage were acting in a bullying manner, he alleges, with one journalist whipping out his smartphone to film him at the urinals. 'There was no privacy,' he says. 'It was not a safe environment.' Ireland's entry, Bambie Thug, accused Israeli broadcaster Kan of intimidating behaviour. So which delegation filmed Klein at the gents? All he will says is: 'I think everybody knows.' The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) later said it regretted that some delegations 'didn't respect the spirit of the rules'. It has announced new codes of conduct for this year's contest in the Swiss city of Basel, including no-filming zones. Europapa ends with an outro in which Klein directly addresses his late father. So he says he was in an emotionally vulnerable state as he exited the stage after the semi-final. 'For me, that's not really a nice moment to, I don't know, film somebody.' Sweden's public prosecution service initially said Klein made a movement that hit a female camera operator's equipment, though it closed its investigation last August after concluding that there was no proof the singer had intended to cause 'serious fear'. What exactly happened? Was there a shove? Klein denies he ever touched the camerawoman, or that he damaged her equipment. 'If that was the case,' he says, 'then there would be a case to be dismissed in the first place.' Klein says he has the footage of the incident filmed by the operator on his phone and might upload it to his YouTube channel one day, insisting it will show 'exactly nothing happened'. If nothing happened, why was he suspended? He says the EBU has still not explained it to him. Did the geopolitical backdrop of the war in Gaza play a part? In Malmö, there had been protests calling for Israel to be excluded from the event, and at the semi-final press conference, there was a tense moment when a Polish journalist asked the Israeli contestant Eden Golan if her presence at the contest was endangering other acts. The host intervened to say she did not have to answer the question if she did not want to. But Klein, sitting next to Golan with a Dutch flag over his head, piped up: 'Why not?' Unlike some of the other contestants, Klein says he had not felt an urge to make a statement about the Gaza war. 'I signed up for an apolitical event.' I suggest that the press conference incident still made him come across as a bit of a bully. 'I just said that as the most Dutch person that I am,' he says. 'So someone gets a cookie. Someone else gets a cookie. Someone else – not. Why not? Equality is very important, especially in a competition.' There's a Dutch word for that kind of attitude: a stijfkop or 'stiffhead'. Is Klein stubborn? 'I think stubbornness is necessary in art,' he says. 'You gotta feel your fuel, or else there's no purpose to it all.' As he describes his experience of Malmö, I am struck by a double bind: Klein is still visibly hurt by what happened, his specs fogging up as he describes his anxiety in the dressing room. But he's also allowing himself to be dragged back, and I am not sure how much he wants to move on. Indeed, the gabber-fuelled pop-punk opening track of his album is called Why Not, revisiting that press conference. And earlier this month he released a single called United by Music, which was Eurovision's 2024 motto. In it, he and Estonian singer Tommy Cash chant: 'Fuck the EBU, I don't wanna go to court.' He's still smarting from having his privacy invaded, but he also expresses concern that someone is trying to wipe footage filmed off-stage from the internet. That double bind might be the most zeitgeist-y thing about Klein, and what makes his music resonate so much with Gen-Z's digital natives: memories can never drift off into the distance but always remain a click away in some online archive. Raw and unrefined, gabber-pop may be the Netherland's own version of punk, but for Klein, No Future is not a cry of protest but an admission that the past is all-consuming. He seems happy to admit it. 'For me,' he says, 'reminiscing is almost a 24/7 thing, and that's not always good. I try to be more in the moment, and I think it's getting better.' He pauses, and adds: 'At least I hope so.' Joost Klein plays Electric Brixton, London, on 14 March
