Switzerland’s Nemo Wins 2024 Eurovision Song Contest

Switzerland’s Nemo won first prize in “The Code at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday.

By Larisha Paul, Althea Legaspi

The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest winner has been crowned. On Saturday, the annual music event came to a close with Switzerland’s Nemo taking the top prize for their performance of “The Code.”

Nemo beat the Croatian Baby Lasagna, a favorite to win, thanks to his track “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” and was second. Ukraine was third and was being followed by France and Israel.

The run-up to the grand final sparked some debate: Mere hours before the winner was scheduled to be announced in Netherland, Joost Klein was eliminated after he had made it from the semi-finals of Thursday, following his performance of “Europapa.” However, Klein was absent in rehearsals on Friday.

This past Saturday Eurovision producers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) confirmed that Klein was barred from the contest following an EBU production crew member was notified by Swedish authorities that Klein had allegedly made “unlawful threats” following the semi-finals in the Malmo Arena.

The Eurovision finals were held at the beachfront Swedish town of Malmo after the victory of Sweden’s very own Loreen in 2023. Prior to the finale the contest’s top competitors were the Swedish duo Marcus & Martinus with “Unforgettable,” Ukraine’s Alyona and Jerry Heil with “Teresa & Maria,” Germany’s ISAAK and “Always On The Run,” Luxembourg’s TALI with “Fighter,” and Netherlands’ Joost Klein with “Europapa.”

The Israeli’s Eden Golan was also vying for victory leading up to the final with “Hurricane.” The participation of Israel in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest was an dangerous situationfor both the organizers of the event as well as the contestants who took part. In Friisgatan the area that is dubbed “Eurovision Street,” thousands of protesters gathered in the street and waved Palestinian flags, calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli government’s occupation of Gaza.

In the last month, singer Olly Alexander who was representing England in this year’s competition and defended his decision to not participate in the contest by creating an apprehension between him and the contest as well as the wider conflict.

“Obviously there are lots of things I would like to change. This is far more significant that me or Eurovision and Eurovision, in fact it does,” he told The Times. “Obviously I would like that there wasn’t conflict or this incredibly humane crisis. I’d like peace, and have had this experience to be at times extremely… It’s been a time when I’ve been really sad and depressed. However, I believe it’s beneficial to have people gather to enjoy entertainment. This is the reason I wanted to host Eurovision.”

Scott Bryan, who reports on Eurovision for British television and radio has recently spoke to Rolling Stone: “I definitely believe that Eurovision is going through the middle of a crisis. Comparatively to where we were last year the feeling couldn’t be more different. It’s changed from a truly impressive year in Liverpool which seemed like it was invincible but now there are loud demands of boycotts.”

In the semi-final on Tuesday night, Sweden’s 2010 Eurovision contestant, Eric Saade (who is half-Palestinian) took part at the end of half-time. He was wearing the Palestinian Keffiyeh tucked around his wrist at the time of the performance and has previously voiced his displeasure over the decision of the EBU to ban Palestinian flags out of the stage during the competition. Flags from non-competing nations were also prohibited. “It is more crucial than ever for me to be present on THAT STAGE,” the singer posted on Instagram before the show. “You may take our symbols, but you cannot take away my presence.”