No. Neither.
That's my point.
The Swedish Broadcast hosting published an article on this. It's here:
https://www.svt.se/kultur/incident-utreds-kring-nederlandske-artisten-joost-klein
Translation reads as follows
The Netherlands' representative in Eurovision, Joost Klein, did not participate during the entire genre rep on Friday afternoon. He was in the opening flag parade but when it was his turn to sing, they skipped his contribution. The country also did not participate during the evening's rehearsal.
According to information to SVT, there must have been a physical confrontation between the artist and a photographer.
In a statement from the EBU about the Dutch artist's absence, they write:
“We are currently investigating an incident reported to us involving the Dutch artist. He will not rehearse for the time being. We have no further comment at this time and will update in due course.”
The Malmö police confirm to SVT Nyheter that they are on site in the arena and investigating the incident.
- There is no established notification at the moment. But we are on site and carrying out investigation measures to see what has happened, says Rickard Lundqvist, press spokesperson at the police in the South region.
Then there's one of the Swedish Tabloids which because it's a tabloid needs a certain amount of caution.
^www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/melodifestivalen/a/MnRnOo/uppgifter-ebu-i-krismote-om-nederlandernas-joost-klein-anklagas^
Translation:
Aftonbladet can now reveal that Joost Klein is accused of being violent towards a woman who works with the television production.
- I don't know how serious it is or what has happened, but the EBU is investigating this right now, says a source with access to the production.
- In any case, it's very serious, because you don't let him scratch. Taking three and a half minutes out of a TV show like that is not easy, so it is clear that it is very serious.
According to Aftonbladet's experience, the EBU has held several crisis meetings in connection with the Malmö arena. The EBU's Eurovision manager Martin Österdahl was not in the TV pictures during the first genre rep in the arena, when he would have otherwise appeared for his usual line "You're good to go".
To Aftonbladet's question whether Joost Klein has been violent, a spokesperson from the EBU replies:
- We are currently investigating an incident reported to us involving the Dutch artist. He will not rehearse until further notice. We have no further comments on this and will update when the opportunity arises.
This freely admits to this being unconfirmed and still just rumour. They don't know what's happened.
So the most that you really get from this is it was an production staff member - so the assumption is Swedish. We have no idea of context. Nor the pressure the singer was put under in the 24hrs previously. (The press conference on Thursday was not in the artists interests. And then there was the announcement of the running order which put Joost in a difficult position).
My feeling is that artists have not been well looked after at all by production tbh. And something has broken - not just for Joost but for a number of artists at this point.
We shouldn't be in this position at nearly 10am local on the day of the final.