Unsafe atmosphere
AVROTROS announced today that there was an unsafe atmosphere in the Delegate Bubble during the event Eurovision Song Festival In Malmö. However, according to the broadcaster, this report has nothing to do with the Ghost Klein incident. The report was submitted to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) which organizes the song festival and was much discussed. The official notification took place on Friday 10 May, one day before the Netherlands were disqualified.
“I can confirm that we have lodged a complaint with the EBU because we felt unsafe in the delegation bubble,” an AVROTROS spokesperson confirmed to NOS on Thursday. “We did so on Friday, but have not received a response yet.”
Other countries
It was not only the Netherlands that was dissatisfied with the atmosphere behind the scenes. Artists from other countries, including Ireland, Norway, Switzerland and Lithuania, have also hinted at this. The Norwegian participants even revealed after the song festival final that they were considering withdrawing shortly before the event. The organization of the Eurovision Song Contest (EBU) has received a lot of criticism in recent days.
Critical voices
Portuguese broadcaster RTP was also not happy with the European Broadcasting Union, because critical voices from the public were muffled by an anti-booing system. This happened, for example, when the Israeli Golan region of Aden was forced to move. AVROTROS is also not happy about this: “We believe that when a musician performs, you should always show the audience what he is doing.”
Loss of eligibility
On Saturday morning, just before the grand final, it was announced that the Netherlands had been excluded. Jost Klein is said to have made a threatening gesture towards a woman photographer, and as a result was no longer allowed to participate in the final of the event Eurovision Song Festival. Swedish police investigated the incident. The case was referred to the judiciary. AVROTROS and the NPO objected to Klein's disqualification.
