The representative of Ireland in Eurovision 2024, Bambie Thug, did not participate this Saturday in the last rehearsal of the grand final due to “a situation” that occurred at the beginning of it and which required an urgent meeting with the European Union of Broadcasting (EBU).
“A situation has arisen while we were waiting to jump on stage and participate in the parade of artists, which is why I required urgent attention from the EBU. This has taken this matter seriously and we have discussed what action to take,” the artist explained on her social networks.
For that reason, Thug has not participated in the aforementioned initial parade of the artists, nor has he appeared in his turn to perform.
The Irishwoman, who has apologized for missing this rehearsal to the fans who attended it, ends her message with a note that leaves her presence in the final in the air: “I hope to see you on stage tonight.”
Ireland was not the only absence in the parade. Nor have the representatives of Greece and Switzerland, Marina Satti and Nemo, jumped on stage at that time of the rehearsal.
These absences occur just after the representative of the Netherlands, Joost Klein, has been disqualified from the festival by the EBU for an “incident” with a person from the production of the contest that the Swedish Police are investigating.
“We have a zero tolerance policy towards inappropriate behavior at our event (…). In light of this, Joost Klein’s behavior towards a team member is considered a violation of the rules,” the EBU explained in its statement.
It so happens that the candidates from Greece, Switzerland and the Netherlands participated in the press conference after the second semifinal together with the representative of Israel, whose presence throughout the festival has been highly contested by her country’s military offensive. in Gaza.
During it, there were some episodes portrayed by the media, such as when Marina Satti pretended to be asleep during an intervention by the Israeli.
Also when a Polish journalist asked her about her responsibility in the highest level of terrorist alert that Malmö was experiencing: “By being here, you are a security risk and a danger to everyone! Do not care?”.
Faced with this question, the moderator of the press conference told Golan that, if he did not want to, he did not have to answer it. “Why not?” Joost Klein then intervened out loud, an episode that quickly went viral on social media.
