When the Eurovision Song Contest kicks off on Tuesday evening, regular commentator Cornald Maas will be in his booth ready to explain the extravagant spectacle calmly and to the point. This week in Malmö, Sweden, Joost Klein defends the Dutch honor with his happy hardcore more scared ‘Europapa’. Cornald Maas (Bergen op Zoom, 1962) started as a commentator on the international TV show twenty years ago. But he has been following, explaining and defending the festival for much longer. Not only does he provide the commentary, he is also on the selection committee that chooses the Dutch entry, which is why the Netherlands has come to identify him with the Eurovision Song Contest.
Your comments are informed, witty and serious. Do you ever have the urge to throw in a funny joke or make fun of an act, like other commentators do?
“That’s not my style. I do it sometimes. I once described a song as ‘botox pop from Serbia’ or I called the sparse decoration of an act ‘Hunkemöller sets’. But that is immediately punished. Comments about appearance and clothing – big breasts, high weight, let alone about non-binary artists – are especially sensitive now. The socials immediately go wild on you.
“I also want to pay attention to cultural sensitivities. Last year a singer with antlers participated and a small human with a flute. Then you can be funny about it, but then the flutist turns out to be a national celebrity and those antlers are an important reference to the ancient culture of Moldova. I also find it more interesting to tell something about that background. It is too easy to just laugh at everyone out of disdain for other cultures.”
This edition is controversial due to the participation of Israel. Opponents of the war in Gaza believe the country should have been disqualified. It is expected that there will be protests during the festival, the site is heavily guarded.
What do you think of Israel’s participation?
“Organizer EBU (European Broadcasting Union) always says: the festival has nothing to do with politics. That’s nonsense, politics always plays a role. And yes, this will be an eventful festival. It bothers artists, they are put under pressure. And I. Should one speak out or not? I obviously think it’s terrible what happened to the Israelis in October, and I think it’s beyond terrible what’s happening to the Palestinians now, but I don’t want to venture any judgment on that. I will mention the problems in the commentary, but I will not speak for or against the war. That’s not my job.
“For the intended non-political nature of the festival, it would have been better if the EBU had asked Israel to skip a year, for example on the grounds that it is not possible in terms of security risks. Now they tried it in a roundabout way and it failed. They rejected the lyrics of the song twice because they were too political. Then Israel changed the text and title and now the EBU could no longer go back. It was also arbitrary of course, there have been song lyrics that were much more political and that were still allowed to participate. Ukraine won in 2016 with a song about Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tartars. In 2015, Armenia sang in veiled terms about the Armenian genocide. Croatia issued an anti-war statement last year and ridiculed the friendship between Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko.
“In the telephone vote, the fuss could actually work to Israel’s advantage. Israel’s opponents cannot cast protest votes by telephone. But Israel’s supporters can show their support by voting for the song.”
Thanks to the Eurovision Song Contest you can feel connected to the part of Europe that promotes freedom and inclusivity.
If the Eurovision Song Contest wants to promote the European idea, shouldn’t you exclude all undemocratic or warlike regimes?
“Well, Azerbaijan or Belarus, they don’t have fresh regimes, no. But especially if you live in a country with a repressive regime, where you have little platform or opportunities – just think of gays who are in the closet – you can tune in to the Eurovision Song Contest and secretly vote for an artist in whom you recognize yourself. Thanks to the Eurovision Song Contest you can feel connected to the part of Europe that promotes freedom and inclusivity. Authoritarian regimes probably dropped out because they always saw themselves represented at the festival by progressive artists or artists from minorities. For example, the same Roma artist performed twice for Hungary. That no longer fit with the conservative message they convey.”
Is it true that you have been covering the Eurovision Song Contest since your youth?
“I used to give talks in my parents’ garage to the neighborhood children about music I had heard, exhibitions I had seen, and also about Eurovision. I always wanted to share what I was passionate about. We had a magazine, I wrote reflections in it. My first Eurovision Song Contest was in 1974, the time Mouth & MacNeal came third. Abba won with Waterloo‘. Before that, I wasn’t allowed to stay up that long. Abba had an enormous influence on the Eurovision Song Contest: it was the first time that a real pop song participated, the extravagant decoration, a lot of attention was paid to the act, with the conductor dressed as Napoleon.
“I have always followed it. Eurovision is an event that is reviled by many people, I knew that too. How do you think my love for Eurovision was perceived when I was studying and in the fraternity? After my studies I joined Elsevier work and update later de Volkskrant. There too I said: guys, we just have to beat this event. I was given the space to do so, although the resistance remained strong. Of course, there’s a lot of rubbish in it, but some of the songs are really beautiful and remain so. Moreover, the festival is an interesting mirror of the sentiments and preferences that exist in Europe. Why does one people always vote for another? I have sometimes been invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain this.”
You were sidelined for three years in 2011-2013. How did that happen?
“The NOS had given up on the festival and the TROS took over. They initially wanted to put a TROS stamp on it. They came with a Dutch schlager from Sieneke with her barrel organ. I then tweeted that the Netherlands had funny export products: Wilders, Joran van der Sloot, Sieneke. Because all three of them made the international press that week. Then I could leave. But I think they wanted to get rid of me anyway because I wasn’t TROS enough in the eyes of the management at the time.”
What has changed in the half century that you have been studying the Eurovision Song Contest?
“The Eurovision Song Contest is taken much more seriously. Now artists who perform there can also quietly perform at Lowlands or Pinkpop. In the past, people mainly watched for laughs. For a long time the festival lost its connection with contemporary pop music, and a separate, poorly valued genre emerged – Eurovision music. In fact, the festival was saved by the new Eastern European states that, driven by nationalism, took their participation very seriously and came up with good songs. In the Netherlands we had a dark time from the turn of the century until 2013, when only 800,000 people watched the final, less than Own Home & Garden. Even then, I continued to stubbornly defend the festival because I continued to see its potential. My love is for better and for worse.”
When Anouk participated in 2013, the image of the festival also improved in the Netherlands, which culminated in Duncan Laurence’s victory in 2019. Thanks to S10’s participation, a new, young audience was reached. But things went wrong again last year: the duo Mia and Dion were mocked in advance and only achieved seven points. Cornald Maas also came under fire.
What went wrong?
“We on the selection committee had chosen the song based on a studio recording, but we had not heard Mia and Dion sing it live. That was usual – we had not heard Duncan Laurence live beforehand. It only later turned out that the song did not suit their voices sufficiently. They operated under Duncan’s wing and we trusted him and the plan he initially presented. Since then we have done it differently: the artists who were in the last round this time sang it live for us.
“There have always been riots and commotion around the festival, but I had never experienced anything as intense as last year. A parliamentary inquiry has not yet been held. I thought: really? We have a track record that other countries would lick their fingers off. In the last ten years, we have reached the finals the most times after Sweden, Ukraine and Norway. Six times in the top eleven and winning once. Now suddenly it wasn’t any good anymore? We’ve had mistakes before, haven’t we? We can’t always win, can we? It was especially bad for those two young artists who were so devastated.”
Was the fuss surrounding the festival different in the past?
“At least then the attention was more concentrated on one evening. The TV Guide published a brief list of the songs in advance: ‘Vicky Leandros is a Greek singer who performs for Luxembourg with the song Apres toi‘. Point. That was it. Now you have all kinds of concerts, pre-parties, previews long in advance, the songs can be heard everywhere. If artists go off the rails vocally somewhere, it is immediately filmed by a mobile phone in the audience and it is recorded at half past six. RTL Boulevard.
Also read
With whom does Joost Klein devise his tricks? TikTokkers have known that for a long time
“Because of this attention in advance, betting houses can predict fairly well what the top 10 will look like. The organization responds to this by giving the favorites a favorable starting place. This year, for example, Joost Klein with ‘Europapa’ has the last place in the second semi-final – an ideal starting place. While Serbia immediately had to come second in the first semi-final with a small ballad, sandwiched between the up-tempo songs. In this way, vulnerable songs that are less popular at betting offices have less chance and are likely to become so self-fulfilling prophecy.
“When I still lived at home and we were ready for the Eurovision Song Contest, I always quickly zapped through the German, French and English channels. All those people in Europe who looked the same at that moment, that unifying act, I thought that was magical. And the Eurovision Song Contest actually still has that.”
To share
Email the editor
