The song is mostly in Dutch, and very different from the songs the Netherlands sent over the years. Klein says on Instagram that the song is a tribute to his dad, who passed away when he was in his first year of secondary school.
The song refers to difficult periods in his life. Shortly after his dad passed away his mum passed as well, he was being bullied at school, was kicked out of school, and was homeless for a while.
In the Netherlands, Europapa has been streamed 1.2 million times on Spotify in one day, which could mean Klein set a new record. These are figures that Dutch songs rarely reach on Spotify. In countries like Belgium and Austria, the song is also gaining traction. With this, Europapa is now the 104th most listened to worldwide.
Klein is, however, familiar with the music scene. He already has a hit song in Germany called ‘Friesenjung’ with German rapper Ski Aggu, which is about him being from Friesland.
The director of marketing Friesland and the brand ‘Fryslân’ Martin Cnossen is very happy that Klein put Friesland on the map.
: “Joost gives a lot of popular vibes to Friesland. He makes it trendy because he gets so much attention,” he told Omrop Fryslan
Cnossen especially likes that Klein is so popular with the youth. He hopes that his original way of showing Friesland makes young adults stay there and makes the province more interesting. “It shows that the youth can still find their way here and that staying here is also interesting,” he said.
On the 9th of May, Joost will be participating in the semi-finals in Malmo, Sweden. If he manages to make the top 10, he will also participate in the finals on the 11th of May.
You can listen to Europapa here.
