Switzerland wins heavily charged Eurovision Song Contest, Nemo is the first non-binary winner ever
Switzerland has won the Eurovision Song Contest. The 68th edition of the international song festival in Malmö, Sweden was heavily loaded with extra security, protests, unprecedented boos and disqualification of the Dutch entry.
The Swiss song The Code by Nemo received 591 points. Nemo became the first non-binary artist to win. Title favorite Croatia finished in second place. Ukraine came in third and France in fourth.
The controversial participant Israel, who was highly rated by the bookmakers, finished in fifth place with Hurricane. Singer Eden Golan received few points from the professional juries (52) but 323 points from the home voters.
The 24-year-old Swiss Nemo Mettler gave a spectacular performance. For example, the round disc on which the artist stood stood out. The song contains elements of opera, drum and bass, rap and rock. It’s about discovering oneself as a non-binary person.
This is how Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest (and swipe to see the performance):
It is the third time that Switzerland has won the Eurovision Song Contest. The last time the country won was in 1988 with the song Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi, which was sung by the Canadian Céline Dion on behalf of the Swiss.
No final for Europapa
In total, not 26, but 25 countries participated in the final this year after Joost Klein was disqualified for the Netherlands. He was excluded from the festival after a complaint was made against him about threatening a TV employee.
The performer of the exciting Europapa remained noticeably quiet during the final. He did post an Instagram story showing dancing dogs. There were no further comments on that message.
Estonia thanked the audience in Dutch, which seemed to be a veiled support for the disqualified Klein:
The audience in the room also expressed its dissatisfaction about Klein’s exclusion. There were cheers when the points from the Dutch jury were announced, but cheers when the points were actually announced by Eurovision boss Martin Österdahl.
Eurovision boss whistled at
Just before the start of the final, Nikkie de Jager withdrew to distribute the points on behalf of the Netherlands. She disagreed with the Eurovision Song Contest’s decision to disqualify Klein. As a result, it was Österdahl who awarded the points from the professional jury on behalf of the Netherlands. When he did so, there were loud boos from the audience.
Earlier in the evening, Österdahl was confronted with loud cheering. That was when he explained the procedure prior to the distribution of points by the professional juries:
Prior to the Eurovision Song Contest, there was a lot of fuss about Israel’s participation because of the war in the Gaza Strip against Hamas. According to opponents, the organization applies a double standard by allowing Israel to participate, while Russia has not been allowed to participate since 2022 due to the war in Ukraine.
Partly for this reason, the rules on making political statements were further tightened. Acts were already not allowed to sing about politics, but now the flag rules, for example, were also tightened. Only flags of participating countries were allowed to be displayed and the public was very strictly controlled at the entrance. Yet, just like in the semi-finals, there were some small political statements to be seen.
Watermelon
For example, Irish participant Bambie Thug shouted “Love will always triumph hate” at the end of his song. That could be interpreted as the first political statement of the evening.
When the jury awarded the points, the artist had an image of a watermelon behind him. Watermelons are more often used as a symbol by pro-Palestinian activists because they have the same colors as the flag of Palestine.
During Israel’s performance it was restless in the audience. Eden Golan was met with both boos and loud applause during her ballad Hurricane. When the points were made known to Israel, loud cheering could be heard.
During afternoon rehearsals, French singer Slimane interrupted his song Mon Amour with a plea for fraternization. He did not repeat that during the final.
Protests outside the arena
And although there were celebrations inside the Malmö Arena, it was restless outside. Thousands of people had gathered to protest, the Reuters news agency saw.
Many of them carried Palestinian flags and shouted “Eurovision united by genocide” which is a corruption of the festival’s official slogan: “United by music”.
Several pro-Palestinian activists were arrested just before the start of the final. The police used pepper spray, among other things, to disperse demonstrators. Several people ended up on the ground as a result.
Also the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, with a k