The Netherlands will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Switzerland, AVROTROS reported on Wednesday. Joost Klein was asked to participate again, but he declined the offer.
AVROTROS says it has had months of discussions and consultations with the European Broadcasting Union, the organization behind the Song Contest. AVROTROS now has sufficient guarantees “that structural changes will be implemented at the music festival”.
Joost Klein was offered the opportunity to participate again, the broadcaster says, but he ultimately chose to decline the offer. “Registration for new songs for 2025 is now open.”
Klein himself has also responded. “My team and I had everything ready, but it just doesn’t feel right. I am grateful for all the love from all over the world, but I still haven’t recovered from this year. I need to give myself more time to heal.”
AVROTROS previously expressed doubts about participating in 2025, partly because of the disqualification of Joost Klein and the unpleasant atmosphere behind the scenes. The broadcaster still believes that the disqualification of the Dutch participant in Malmö was unnecessary and disproportionate. Klein is the first artist to be excluded from participating while the Eurovision Song Contest was already underway.
The singer is said to have made a threatening gesture towards a camerawoman. The Swedish judiciary decided to stop the investigation into the incident at the beginning of August. The judiciary could not establish that Klein had made his “threatening gesture” with the intention of causing the camerawoman “serious fear”.
The original deadline for registration was 15 September. The EBU had granted AVROTROS an extension until 1 November. Source: nu.nl
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