WiNTERiZER (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterizer) wrote2024-05-11 07:21 pm
winterizer) wrote2024-05-11 07:21 pm
Nineteen Eurovision
So, shit has completely hit the fan at Eurovision and it has been complete chaos since yesterday. I'll try to summarize what's been happening.
The second semi-final on Thursday was alright. The loudness of the people singing along to Joost Klein's Europapa in the audience was insane. I've been watching Eurovision since 2017 and I don't think I've ever seen an act this popular. What surprised me was that I didn't hear any negative reactions during Israel's performance. But I'll get to that later.
After the semi-finals on Thursday, there were interviews with the artists that made it to the finals. A journalist asked the Israeli singer, who made it to the finals to my surprise, whether or not she had considered the fact that her presence at Eurovision this year was endangering the safety of everyone at Eurovision. Someone from Eurovision said they didn't have to answer that question. Then, Joost Klein removed his head from under the Dutch flag, and he asked "Why not?". Nice tension, huh? Well, it didn't end there. It got way, WAY worse.
Friday was the jury show, in which the jury already gives out points for the finals. Earlier that day was a practice. Joost Klein was there during the flag parade, but when he was supposed to perform, he was nowhere to be found. They took his props off the stage and got the stage ready for the next performance: Israel. No one knew what was going on. The European Broadcasting Union revealed there had been an "incident" surrounding Joost Klein on Thursday evening. People went crazy with speculation, but the EBU stayed completely silent. During the jury show, he wasn't allowed to perform, but they did show the video of his semi-final performance to the jury, and they still allowed the jury to vote for him. At that point, it wasn't clear whether he was going to be disqualified or not.
Despite not really knowing anything for sure yet, people quickly sided with Joost Klein. And videos started coming out from the jury show practice, even though recording wasn't allowed. Remember how I said I was confused that Israel didn't get any boos from the audience during their semi-final performance? Well, it turns out they did. There was really loud booing in the crowd during the practice, and probably also during the semi-final, but they muted the audience and played fake cheering on tv. Incredibly dystopian.
The voting for the finals was supposed to open last night, for the people living in places where the finals take place at an ungodly hour, but the opening of the voting was postponed by two or three hours, and then when the timer hit zero, still nothing happened. They later issued a statement that they were postponing the opening of the votes because they were still discussing the situation with Joost Klein.
This afternoon, only hours before the finals, we got to hear Joost was disqualified. There were rumors that Joost had physically attacked someone, and I guessed the EBU probably didn't really know what was going on yet, so I thought it was a pretty understandable decision. But it turned out they knew. And then the world learned. Despite the agreement made with the EBU beforehand that Joost would be left alone and not recorded backstage immediately after his performance (as this song and performance were highly emotional to him, as they were an ode to his parents who passed away), a camerawoman had recorded him. He asked her multiple times to stop, and then when she didn't, he made a threatening gesture to her camera. He didn't lay a finger on her. And then she went to the police. The police started investigating. The case is going to court.
After the news that Joost Klein was disqualified, there was another practice today. Originally, Israel was to perform after the Netherlands, so people in the audience loudly sang Europapa over Israel's performance. The guy running Eurovision got bood when he went on stage. People were very fucking angry. The conversation online moved at a hundred miles an hour, and there were even talks that people would bring trash or tennis balls with them to throw at the stage tonight.
Furthermore, Ireland's artist is fighting with the Israeli delegation over something and most other artists support Joost Klein, so now there is talk that a lot of artists might not perform tonight. The people giving the points for Norway and Finland also quit over the disqualification of Klein, and the Netherlands' points-giver refuses to give the points of the Netherlands live. On the one hand, it's nice to see support. On the other, this means Israel has a bigger chance of winning. Despite the amount of hate they've been getting, they're expected to be one of the highest-scoring performances tonight. I already expect shit to go down in the stadium tonight, but that's going to happen even more so if Israel wins, since a lot of people didn't even want them to be able to join this year anyway. Also, Italy's singer even got a warning from the EBU for singing John Lennon's Imagine as a statement.
I wanted to boycott the finals, like my comrades, but my mother is too stubborn, so she is going to watch on the tv anyway, so I'll watch along with her. I'm going to try to not spam on here. I'll mostly update my comrades who aren't watching, but if something really interesting happens, I'll post a blog here. I'm expecting wild shit to go down, but if it doesn't, I'll probably still blog afterwards or tomorrow or something. For now, multiple country's point-givers have quit over the drama, and apparently Loreen will refuse to give the award to Israel if they win. That's already good. Kind of excited to see the shit that goes down.
But for now, it's first time to watch.
The second semi-final on Thursday was alright. The loudness of the people singing along to Joost Klein's Europapa in the audience was insane. I've been watching Eurovision since 2017 and I don't think I've ever seen an act this popular. What surprised me was that I didn't hear any negative reactions during Israel's performance. But I'll get to that later.
After the semi-finals on Thursday, there were interviews with the artists that made it to the finals. A journalist asked the Israeli singer, who made it to the finals to my surprise, whether or not she had considered the fact that her presence at Eurovision this year was endangering the safety of everyone at Eurovision. Someone from Eurovision said they didn't have to answer that question. Then, Joost Klein removed his head from under the Dutch flag, and he asked "Why not?". Nice tension, huh? Well, it didn't end there. It got way, WAY worse.
Friday was the jury show, in which the jury already gives out points for the finals. Earlier that day was a practice. Joost Klein was there during the flag parade, but when he was supposed to perform, he was nowhere to be found. They took his props off the stage and got the stage ready for the next performance: Israel. No one knew what was going on. The European Broadcasting Union revealed there had been an "incident" surrounding Joost Klein on Thursday evening. People went crazy with speculation, but the EBU stayed completely silent. During the jury show, he wasn't allowed to perform, but they did show the video of his semi-final performance to the jury, and they still allowed the jury to vote for him. At that point, it wasn't clear whether he was going to be disqualified or not.
Despite not really knowing anything for sure yet, people quickly sided with Joost Klein. And videos started coming out from the jury show practice, even though recording wasn't allowed. Remember how I said I was confused that Israel didn't get any boos from the audience during their semi-final performance? Well, it turns out they did. There was really loud booing in the crowd during the practice, and probably also during the semi-final, but they muted the audience and played fake cheering on tv. Incredibly dystopian.
The voting for the finals was supposed to open last night, for the people living in places where the finals take place at an ungodly hour, but the opening of the voting was postponed by two or three hours, and then when the timer hit zero, still nothing happened. They later issued a statement that they were postponing the opening of the votes because they were still discussing the situation with Joost Klein.
This afternoon, only hours before the finals, we got to hear Joost was disqualified. There were rumors that Joost had physically attacked someone, and I guessed the EBU probably didn't really know what was going on yet, so I thought it was a pretty understandable decision. But it turned out they knew. And then the world learned. Despite the agreement made with the EBU beforehand that Joost would be left alone and not recorded backstage immediately after his performance (as this song and performance were highly emotional to him, as they were an ode to his parents who passed away), a camerawoman had recorded him. He asked her multiple times to stop, and then when she didn't, he made a threatening gesture to her camera. He didn't lay a finger on her. And then she went to the police. The police started investigating. The case is going to court.
After the news that Joost Klein was disqualified, there was another practice today. Originally, Israel was to perform after the Netherlands, so people in the audience loudly sang Europapa over Israel's performance. The guy running Eurovision got bood when he went on stage. People were very fucking angry. The conversation online moved at a hundred miles an hour, and there were even talks that people would bring trash or tennis balls with them to throw at the stage tonight.
Furthermore, Ireland's artist is fighting with the Israeli delegation over something and most other artists support Joost Klein, so now there is talk that a lot of artists might not perform tonight. The people giving the points for Norway and Finland also quit over the disqualification of Klein, and the Netherlands' points-giver refuses to give the points of the Netherlands live. On the one hand, it's nice to see support. On the other, this means Israel has a bigger chance of winning. Despite the amount of hate they've been getting, they're expected to be one of the highest-scoring performances tonight. I already expect shit to go down in the stadium tonight, but that's going to happen even more so if Israel wins, since a lot of people didn't even want them to be able to join this year anyway. Also, Italy's singer even got a warning from the EBU for singing John Lennon's Imagine as a statement.
I wanted to boycott the finals, like my comrades, but my mother is too stubborn, so she is going to watch on the tv anyway, so I'll watch along with her. I'm going to try to not spam on here. I'll mostly update my comrades who aren't watching, but if something really interesting happens, I'll post a blog here. I'm expecting wild shit to go down, but if it doesn't, I'll probably still blog afterwards or tomorrow or something. For now, multiple country's point-givers have quit over the drama, and apparently Loreen will refuse to give the award to Israel if they win. That's already good. Kind of excited to see the shit that goes down.
But for now, it's first time to watch.