COPENHAGEN – Sweden on Monday dropped its investigation into a backstage altercation in May involving a Dutch contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest who was expelled from the competition hours before the final.
After fan favorite Joost Klein was booted out, organizers said the reason was a probe by Swedish police into “a complaint made by a female member of the production crew.”
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In its new statement, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said the investigation concluded that "the man made a movement that hit the woman’s camera,” adding that “the course of events was fast and was perceived differently by the witnesses of the incident.”
“I cannot prove that the act was capable of causing serious fear or that the man had any such intention,” senior prosecutor Fredrik Jönsson said.
He did not name Klein. The 26-year-old singer and rapper had been a bookies’ favorite with his song “Europapa,” an upbeat ode to the continent’s diversity that is also a tribute to his parents, who died when he was a child.
The last-minute disqualification was unprecedented in the 68-year history of Eurovision. Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, said at the time it was “shocked by the decision.”
On Monday, AVROTROS welcomed the Swedish decision, saying that there was “no evidence of criminal conduct.”
"From the beginning we said that this disqualification was unnecessary and disproportionate” and it planned to meet with the organizer about the issue soon.
“This unjustified disqualification will be central to this conversation,” it said in a statement to The Associated Press.
In a statement, an official from the organizing European Broadcasting Union said that the disqualification was “made in strict accordance with Eurovision Song Contest rules and governance procedures, after an internal investigation.”
EBU Deputy Director-General Jean Philip De Tender added that the Swedish police investigation was “not whether Mr Klein behaved inappropriately and breached ESC rules and procedures. This new development therefore does not have any impact on our decision which we stand by completely.”
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This story was first published on Aug. 12, 2024. It was updated on Aug. 13, 2024 to correct a headline that incorrectly referred to an investigation into the decision to expel Dutch contestant Joost Klein from the contest. Swedish police investigated Klein’s actions, not his removal from the contest.