News from Italy
Switzerland’s Nemo wins the Eurovision
Vita gazette – Switzerland’s Nemo has been crowned the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 winner. Switzerland dominated early on, with the jury vote, and clinched the contest with the public vote. L’Italia è settima con Angelina Mango e la sua La Noia.
The Saturday night showpiece event featured celebrations of ABBA and other Swedish musical stars and performances from 26 finalists across genre, language, and style in Malmö, Sweden. Switzerland has won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest! Nemo stormed the contest with the song “The Code,” walking away with 591 points – a combination of a jury and public votes.
Nemo, a favourite throughout the process, won over crowds with a stunning rendition of “The Code,” a genre-bending anthem about their journey towards accepting their non-binary identity.
The Swiss non-binary artist triumphed at this year’s contest in Malmö, Sweden, with their track The Code, marking the third time Switzerland has won the competition. The country won the first edition of the Eurovision in 1956 and 1988 with Celine Dion. It marks the first time a non-binary artist has won the song contest.
The song details Nemo’s journey towards understanding and accepting their non-binary identity.
Benjamin Alasu, Lasse Midtsian Nymann, Linda Dale, and Nemo Mettler wrote Nemo’s winning song, The Code.
Nemo: “Dignity and peace”
Nemo, who repeated the song, said, “I hope this contest can continue to live up to its promise to stand for dignity and peace everywhere.”
Born in 1999 in Biel, a small bilingual town in Switzerland, Nemo has been playing the violin, piano and drums since they were a small child. 2016 Nemo became a classic overnight success thanks to an appearance at SRF Virus (#Cypher), which went viral on social media. Nemo went on to release two EPs and has enjoyed seven hit songs in the official Swiss Singles Chart.
Croatian entry Baby Lasagna came in second with 547 points, followed by Ukraine’s Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil with 453, France’s Slimane with 445 and Israel’s Eden Golan with 375.
The U.K., represented by singer and “It’s a Sin” actor Olly Alexander, finished in 18th place, receiving 46 points from the judges and zero points from the public.
Croatia won the most public votes—337 points from viewers at home—followed by Israel, which received 323, and Ukraine, which garnered 307.
Mango was fourth!
Our Angelina Mango finished in seventh place: she was fourth after the judges’ vote, but from the televoting, she only had 104 points.
Eurovision 2024: political spotlight and tension
Malmo hosted the competition on the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s Eurovision breakout. Still, the event quickly found itself in the centre of an uncomfortably political spotlight, and tension reached a fever pitch in the hours leading up to the final.
Protesters said the event was “artwashing” Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since being waged in the wake of the militant group’s October 7 attacks on Israel.
But organisers of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) sharply defended Israel’s presence. They insisted the contest is non-political – a line that became increasingly untenable as artists, broadcasters and fans clashed over the presence of Israel’s singer Eden Golan.
Ultimately, a competitor was disqualified just hours before the event – the Dutch contestant Joost Klein, who was kicked out of the final after an “incident” backstage. The EBU offered few details about that incident, but furious fans clarified their anger at the decision during the final by booing EBU representatives when they appeared onscreen.
