Tag: semi-final

Friends Along

Joost Klein takes two good friends to the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Influencers Appie Mussa and Martijn van Eijzeren will be part of the act.

“We have done crazy things in videos, but this will be really great,” says Mussa on Tuesday evening in Sophie & Jeroen. He calls it “an ultimate honor” to share the stage with Klein.

Klein’s two friends do not reveal exactly what Europapa’s act will look like, or how big their contribution will be. “We have a very childish, fun way of making things, that’s what we’re going to show,” says Van Eijzeren, also known as Stunt Gnome. In addition, the influencer says that participating in the Eurovision Song Contest feels like he can play for the Dutch national team. Mussa and Van Eijzeren can also be seen in Europapa’s video clip.

Govert Meit, also known as Stefano Keizers, also joined Sophie & Jeroen last night. He is the creative director of the act and also a good friend of Klein. He also doesn’t want to say much about the design of the performance. “We worked every day for nine months to turn that three-minute act into something that can please everyone in the world.”

Meit also says that he has been friends with Klein, Mussa and Van van Eijzeren for years. “They often call me their uncle,” he says. “They are my creative children, who are super original just like me. I believe in that very much. I believe that it is the future, reaching people with individuality and positivism.”

Europapa is currently number three among bookmakers. Klein’s semi-final in Malmö is on Thursday evening, May 9. Source: nu.nl.

Klein closes second semi-final

Joost Klein is the last to perform during the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest. The singer, who represents the Netherlands with the song Europapa, is competing with fifteen other countries for ten final spots.

The running order was presented on Tuesday evening by Eurovision Song Contest organizer EBU. Previously, it was determined by drawing lots in which semi-final the countries would participate and whether they would perform in the first or second half of that semi-final. The precise order must ensure a show that is as varied and attractive as possible.

The Netherlands will compete against Belgium, Israel and Greece in the second semi-final on Thursday, May 9. Croatia and Ukraine, who are the big favorites according to the bookmakers, will play in the first semi-final on Tuesday, May 7. Joost is currently in fifth place among the bookmakers.

Joost’s Eurovision Song Contest entry is already a big hit. Europapa has been in first place in the Dutch Spotify charts since its release. Never before has a song been streamed so much in the Netherlands in 24 hours. Europapa is also in the charts in Belgium, among others.

The Eurovision Song Contest will take place this year in the Swedish city of Malmö, due to Loreen’s victory with the song Tattoo. The singer won for the second time last year, after having already collected the most points in 2012 with Euphoria. The final of the Eurovision Song Contest is on Saturday, May 11.

Eurovision 2004

This week the 49th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest took place in Istanbul, Turkey, following the country’s victory at the 2003 contest with the song Everyway That I Can by Sertab Erener. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), the contest was held at the Abdi İpekçi Arena, and, for the first time, consisted of a semi-final on 12 May, and a final on 15 May 2004. The two live shows were presented by Turkish actors Korhan Abay and Meltem Cumbul. It was the first time that Turkey had hosted the contest, 29 years after the country made its debut, and was also the first time since the 1998 contest in Birmingham that it was not hosted in the host country’s capital city.

Thirty-six countries participated in the contest, beating the record of twenty-six in the previous edition. Albania, Andorra, Belarus and Serbia and Montenegro took part for the first time this year. The old relegation system was replaced with a semi-final format. This was done in order to accommodate the increasing number of countries who wished to participate. The new format allowed all countries to participate every year, rather than being forced to sit out per the relegation rules, which had been the standard since 1994. Because of this, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Monaco and Switzerlandall returned to the contest, Monaco not having competed since 1979.

The semi-final was held on 12 May 2004 at 21:00 (CET). 22 countries performed and all participants voted except France, Poland and Russia who opted not to broadcast the show.

A new ABBA video was shown in the semi-final, briefly outlining how ABBA started and what the response was of the first record company they approached. It featured small puppets of the band performing snippets of their songs (the voices being the ones of the band) and featured Rik Mayall as the record company manager. Due to copyright purposes, this was cut from the Eurovision Song Contest DVD and released separately. References to the video before it was shown were also cut.

The winner was Ukraine with the song Wild Dances, performed by Ruslana who wrote it with her husband Oleksandr Ksenofontov. This was Ukraine’s first victory in the contest, only one year after the country made its debut in 2003. Serbia and Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and Sweden rounded out the top five. Due to the expansion of the contest, this year was the first time in which a non-winning entry scored over 200 points. Prior to this contest, only the winning entries in 1994 and 1997 had passed this mark. In this contest, the top 3 songs all got over 200 points. An official CD was released and, for the first time, the entire contest was released on DVD which included the semi-final and the final.