Netherlands: "Europapa" by Joost Klein has been released for Eurovision 2024
The song Joost Klein will be taking the Eurovision 2024 stage with in Malmö this May has been released. Listen to his song "Europapa" down below
Back in December, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS announced that they had internally selected and awarded the honor of representing the Netherlands at Eurovision 2024 to Joost Klein.
Now, after months of waiting, the time is finally here. Joost Klein's song for Eurovision 2024, "Europapa," has officially been released!
Europapa
"Europapa" was written by Joost Klein himself along with Dylan van Dael, Donald "Maradonnie" Ellerström, Paul Elstak, Teun de Kruif, Thijmen Melissant, and Tim Haars.
"Europapa" premiered on a special show called De Avondshow. Joost was present alongside the host, Arjen Lubach, to talk about his song and his preparations for Eurovision 2024.
Joost Klein describes his song:
– "Europapa" is about an orphan who travels throughout Europe (and beyond) to find himself and tell his story. At first, people don't recognize him, but he goes on seizing any opportunity he gets to let himself be seen. "Europapa" is a tribute to my father. When bringing me up, he passed on to me an expansive view of the world
Joost Klein
Joost Klein (10 November 1997) is a Dutch musician, rapper, and singer born in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. He's been active in the music industry since 2016, and is only on the rise from here on out.
Growing up, Joost was found on YouTube from 2010 to 2017 posting videos ranging from sketches to mini-documentaries under the name "EenhoornJoost," which translates to UnicornJoost. Around the time he started his YouTube journey his dad passed away from cancer when he was 12, and his mom passed only a year later from cardiac arrest in 2011. After that, he was looked after by his brother and sister.
His entry into the music industry in 2016 started with his debut EP titled "Dakloos" ("Homeless" in English). With that release, he then chose to focus on music full time. In 2017 and 2018, he was signed to TopNotch records but left to start his own label called Albino Records.
Since 2017, Joost has gone on to release numerous successful albums and singles including, but not limited to, his mixtape "Scandinavian Boy," which peaked at #12 on the Netherlands music charts, his 2019 album "Albino," that went to #5, and his most recent album "Fryslân" from 2022, which peaked at #2.
As of right now, Joost has scored an incredible amount of songs with over a million streams, as well as being featured on the 2023 song "Friesenjung" with Ski Aggu and Otto Waalkes. "Friesenjung" currently has over 100 million streams on Spotify, as well as charting #1 in both Austria and Germany.
The Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest
The Netherlands has historically been one of the 10 most successful Eurovision countries.
They have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 63 times since their debut in 1956, with five victories:
- 1957: Corry Brokken – Net Als Toen
- 1959: Teddy Scholten – Een Beetje
- 1969: Lenny Kuhr – De Troubadour
- 1975: Teach-In – Ding-A-Dong
- 2019: Duncan Laurence – Arcade
Since 1975, the best result for the Netherlands was in 2019, when Duncan Laurence finished first with the song "Arcade." They have come in last in the contest five times: 1958, 1962, 1963, 1968 and 2011. Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, they have qualified for the Grand Final 9 out of 19 times.