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Swiss artist Nemo sings “The Code” at Eurovision 2024
EUROVISION – Loreen has returned her crown. The big winner of Eurovision 2024 was chosen this Saturday, May 11 at the end of the grand final. It was Nemo, representative of Switzerland who won against his competitors, and the Frenchman Slimane, just ahead of Croatia, the big favorite of the competition. His stage performance on the song The Code won over viewers and jurors from the 37 member countries and collected a total of 591 points.
The non-binary artist thus offers a third victory to Switzerland, after Lys Assia with Chorus in 1956, and of course, Céline Dion in 1988 with the title Do not go without me. Very happy, he celebrated his first place on stage… and even broke the trophy.
France represented by Slimane totaled 445 points and finished 4th.
Nemo, a 24-year-old artist, is a well-known personality in the world of music in Switzerland, with several Swiss Music Awards to his name, and notably participated in the Swiss version of Mask Singer in 2021. Nemo was one of favorites of the competition, placed in 3rd place in the bookmakers’ ranking ahead of the competition.
During the evening, viewers and the public in the room witnessed a total of 25 performances, each as different as the last. Some terrifying, like Irish singer Bambie Thug’s performance of the song Doomsday Blue. Other catchy ones like the song La Noia by the Italian representative Angelina Mango, or very rock like the Croatian song Baby Lasagna Rim Tim Tagi Sun.
Without forgetting the zany ones, whose prize goes without hesitation this Saturday, May 11 to Finland represented by the duo Windows95Man and Henri Piispanen who performed No Rules. During the performance, Windows95Man appeared to be wearing nothing other than a simple t-shirt. The public also witnessed the unexpected “return” of the group Abba, thanks to artificial intelligence, 50 years after its victory with Waterloo.
A disrupted Eurovision 2024
Nemo therefore won the competition after two semi-finals and a final placed under the sign of music of course, but not only.
Indeed, this edition of a competition which aims to be “apolitical” has been marked by numerous controversies. For many months, calls for a boycott have been mounting to ban Israel’s participation in the competition, due to strikes carried out by the Israeli army in Gaza. During the week of May 7, during which the semi-finals and the final took place, numerous demonstrations took place in the city of Malmö, to protest against the presence on stage of Eden Golan, representative of Israel . The latter was also booed on stage during her song Hurricane during the final.
The organizers of the competition had, however, done everything to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict away from the stage and the room, banning Palestinian flags but also messages, symbols and other references to Palestine. A marching order that some participants chose not to respect: Swedish singer Eric Saade, a former participant in the competition, wore a keffiyeh around his arm during the first semi-final.
The competition was also marked by the exclusion of Dutch candidate Joost Klein before the final, after a complaint from a member of the production team.
Incidents that presenters Petra Mede and Malin Akerman skillfully avoided mentioning, wanting to maintain the absolute neutrality of the competition. Even if many representatives took advantage of the few seconds of live broadcast granted to them when the points were awarded to discuss “the importance of peace. »
After Nemo’s victory, in 2025 it will be in Switzerland that the next edition of the competition will be held.
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