The Netherlands 2024: Joost Klein with ‘Europapa’
Following last year’s poor result The Netherlands have decided it’s time to let loose the Joost.
We've seen songs where the initial reception was poor return to the conversation after a short period of time (I remember backing Switzerland 2020 at 60+, whilst Malta 2021 went to 30s+ before crashing into the 5s- albeit with some ‘assistance’ perhaps) but I don't remember a case of an entry heading to 600 so quickly which now sits in the 30s.
The reason for that is predominantly the statistics that this has gathered, pretty unexpectedly. Joost has already never had a hit anywhere near this scale on YouTube where he is already at the top of the view tree on the Eurovision channel. Ukraine, Italy, France and Croatia would be higher were they too consolidated but still, in such a short time that is impressive. Duncan Laurence’s domestic Spotify record is also in the bin and the often unsurpassable Italy are a million daily streams behind. So what's going on here, have the Dutch just lost their minds?
Well, yes, kind-off. It’s fair to say Joost is a more popular figure than last year's pairing and the politics behind this are helping to an extent. This also does appear a very regional thing for now but it will be interesting to see if it can continue to break out.
Personally, I find this the weakest of the commonly grouped together 4 fun entries of the year (Croatia, Finland, Estonia + this, not the '07 Lithuania representatives) but it does grow on you with further listens. The hardcore instrumental bridge is the strongest part of this and it’s about time the Dutch sent something like that with it being a big element of their musical culture. Perhaps that’s another reason why this is flying in the domestic stats. I do wish it went even harder however. There is staging potential here and how they handle that and the come down into the emotional climax will be key. I expect the overt EU flags will have to be eliminated but the politics of this should still be pretty obvious and an avenue for potential votes.
Juries should not be liking this one bit however and anyone talking up The Netherland’s chances can be met with a resurrected #JuriesExist. Yes I am keen on Baby Lasagna’s chances but the difference there is that may reach 5th/6th with a fair wind a favouritism inflation (a la Kaarijaa). ‘Europapa’ is much more of a bedfellow to Windows95man as an overt novelty and will be lucky to reach 10th, with the best will in the world and momentum far beyond what it has currently. The deficit will simply be too great/ vs too many.
Qualification should not be a problem and the Netherlands could play for the semi win (there are a few countries here, namely Belgium, where this has been charting) but that initial reaction makes me doubt the full on credentials of this in the final somewhat. I’m working from a broad range of 100-275 with the public depending on if this continues to snowball, whilst the jury score is destined to be way under 100, possibly around 50 or so. That we have even had to mention the win in this review is a positive for Joost and The Netherlands should be happy with a top 10 finish that looks achievable.
Personal Rating: 5/10
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Early Prediction: Semi 2 1st-4th, 8th-12th in the final.