The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has announced a number of changes to the grand final after the disqualification of Dutch act Joost Klein.
The 26-year-old rapper and singer from the Netherlands had qualified on Thursday for the grand final, at the Malmo Arena venue in Sweden, with the song Europapa.
However, ahead of the grand final on Saturday, the EBU said he would no longer be taking part after a Swedish police investigation into an alleged incident.
– What does this mean for the running order?
The organisers of Eurovision have said that all contestants will keep their official running order.
Klein was to be the fifth performer. There will now be no song at number five.
The EBU has asked that no-one attempts to vote for song number five and that if anyone does, their vote will not count, but there is a possibility they may be charged.
The union also said that it will inform all telecommunications partners that the Netherlands is no longer taking part and will endeavour to block the lines for song number five.
– What does this mean for voting?
The outcome of the contest is determined by a jury of music industry professionals and viewers’ votes, which each make a 50% contribution to the result.
Each country has its own jury and juries vote on the basis of the second dress rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show.
According to the EBU, the jury results received after dress rehearsal number two on Friday have been recalculated, so that the Netherlands will not receive any points.
Jury members rank all songs from one to 26 – there are now 25 performers.
This means that if the Netherlands was ranked ninth by a national jury in any country, the 10th ranked song has now moved down to number nine.
During the grand final no points will be awarded to the Netherlands from the viewing public and the country will not appear on the scoreboard.
Dutch viewers are still allowed to vote in the grand final and the Dutch jury result is still valid.
AVROTROS, the Dutch radio and television broadcaster, has announced, however, that it will no longer be announcing the points of the Dutch jury at the Eurovision Song Contest.
In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, the broadcaster wrote: “Now that AVROTROS is no longer part of the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, we do not feel the need to hand out the points of the Dutch jury.
“In consultation with Nikkie de Jager, who would act as our spokesperson tonight, we decided not to do it.
“Just like Nikkie, we imagined this evening very differently.”
