Good morning Europe! The Grand Final of the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will take place today in Malmö, Sweden (detailed previously on the Blue). At least, it's supposed to.

Never a simple show to arrange, this year has been particularly dogged by controversies and protests around the inclusion of Israel in the lineup, with many criticising the EBU's "apolitical" stance. But what looks to be the biggest upset in the running of the event so far is the unknown incident involving Dutch singer Joost Klein, who was supposed to perform in yesterday's dress rehearsal (which would also be shown to the worldwide juries for their votes) but was stopped at the last minute, much to the disgust of the crowd in the stadium. The specifics of the incident are still unknown, but this morning Dutch media reported that the police received a complaint about Klein and will be investigating. Nobody knows if Joost will be performing tonight, or whether the Netherlands will be formally disqualified, resulting in potentially signficiant changes to the voting outcome. Unfortunately, this has had an impact on the opening of the 'Rest of the World' voting, which was supposed to begin 24 hours before the final and has still not started as of this post, leaving a much narrower window for voters and for the organisers to verify the results.