This year, rapper Joost Klein (26) expressed his wish to represent the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest. With the credo ‘Joost Klein, dream big’ and boundless self-confidence, Klein was sure that he would go to Malmö, Sweden. In October, he said in the Flemish TV program The smartest person in the world: “I’m going to Sweden, the tickets and the hotel are already booked.” He campaigned with videos on social media ‘as perhaps not the best singer’, but someone with a creative heart and a story to tell. Klein especially underlined his otherness. He said he feels related to the Finnish artist Käärija, who came second at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with his idiosyncratic, pounding house style (‘Cha Cha Cha’).
Bee the announcement On Monday morning that Joost Klein is the Dutch candidate in Sweden, he promised “a breath of fresh air”. “I’m going to do who I am,” he said at radio station 3FM. He called the fact that he is going to Malmö “a dream come true.” “I used to watch it with my parents, I was glued to the TV, every year. It is an honor to represent the Netherlands and I will do everything I can to achieve the best result. At the end of the day you will be proud.” And for those who still had doubts about the entry, there were the words: “Trust the process”.
Crazy ride
A performance by Joost Klein is like a crazy ride on a roller coaster. A wild, absurdist turbo show in which beats, from happy hardcore, rave, pop punk, Dutch pop to ska, follow each other in quick succession and the samples and word flows crash over each other. It goes from chopping to crying: from corny nineties references to a top-heavy feeling.
Joost Klein from Leeuwarden – known for hits such as ‘Friesenjung’ – is a phenomenon among young people that should not be underestimated. Since he was ten, he has been making a name for himself as a vlogger as EenhoornJoost with ‘vague shit’ and crazy daily videos. The Frisian former high school student then became a rap artist, with corny talk raps on a colorful arsenal of rhythms. The music videos were a hit: his star rose, especially at the festivals. With a goofy voice on his album 1983: “I was born on the world wide web, okay.”
He races across the stage in a white shirt and tie (his fans wear that too) and a black and white face painted. His thin tracks last barely two minutes. With topics such as an annoying neighbor or frikandel sandwiches, you might think: this is a pleasantly crazy, tireless party act. But Klein knows how to delight a new generation. The hit ‘Dream big’ showed his fearlessness. And humor may be his crowbar, but Klein won even more by being open about his childhood traumas. (“His name is Klein but his dream is big. He got the wind from him, it was code red.”)
Major traumas
A deeper layer was discussed in the album Friesland, in which he described the great traumas of his youth. Klein lost both his parents as a young teenager: his father died of cancer, his mother suffered from psychosis and died of cardiac arrest just under a year after his father’s death. Klein dealt with the double loss by writing about it. He preferred not to give interviews about his grieving process. He is more than that orphan, not a glorification of a sob story. Klein tattooed the title of his album 1983, the year of birth of his brother who is fourteen years older, on his fingers. “From someone who is still alive.”
Friesland (2022) became his therapy record; as overwhelming as it is moving, as funny as it is dark, full of bitter sentences. Like in the opening track ‘Life Story’: “Call my father every day, that man is dead.” Memories are discussed in ‘Florida 2009’. “There you are, at your father’s cremation. After all that time of running, you stop and think. This will never be custard again. No more custard in front of the TV. Never watch together again DWDD.” And there he was again, at his mother’s cremation.
The success tastes bittersweet, he makes no secret of that during performances – in the Afas Live last November he stood sobbing under a Frisian flag. Mental problems have piled up in recent years. Klein walked in circles in a mental health maze. In ‘PTSD’ he screams for help: “Doctor, please, I want trauma therapy. I prefer not to listen to the pharmaceutical industry (I just want a little help).”
Big
Nevertheless, this year the name Klein means ‘big’. By the largest stage at Lowlands to two sold-out Afas Live shows. And there is international success, in Germany and Austria with the German-language hit ‘Friesenjung’, recorded with the Berlin rapper Ski Aggu („I am in a Friesenjung, in a smaller Friesenjung” – adaptation of Sting’s ‘Englishman In New York’). That success will certainly come in handy during the Eurovision Song Contest televoting process.
In Malmö, Sweden, Klein is now really going to be the ‘Scandinavian boy’ he talked about was already rapping at the age of nineteen in the song ‘Scandinavian Boy’. The AVRO-TROS selection committee, including singers Jacqueline Govaert (Krezip) and Jaap Reesema, selected him from more than six hundred entries. According to chairman Twan van de Nieuwenhuijzen, Joost “has given us a hit that can conquer all of Europe. It has the potential to reach many people, from Iceland to Australia.”
Which song Klein will perform with will not be announced until the end of February or the beginning of March. The chairman cannot confirm whether it will be in English. “It is absolutely in Joost’s style and he is able to throw a party.” What is certain is that Klein’s song was made with his regular producer, beatmaker Tantu Beats. They have “never worked on a song for so long.”
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