Eurovision 2024: Switzerland’s Nemo Has Won A Troubled Song Contest With “The Code” 🇨🇭
We’ve broken the code and we’re going to Switzerland! Gender non-binary singer-songwriter Nemo (Mettler), who uses they/them/their pronouns, has taken out the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.
The Code, is an autobiographical manifest that takes listeners on a Bohemian Rhapsody-esque journey through opera, rap, pop, drum and bass. On stage, the falsetto notes are hit with perfect pitch, and is performed with Nemo jumping around a spinning disc wearing a ruffled and vibrantly-coloured tulle jacket and skirt. Taking an early lead, The Code rallied up a total 591 of combined jury and public votes, making it this year’s winner.
Croatia came second with 547 points, followed by Ukraine with 453 points. All three acts were early favourites in a contest steeped in controversy, which has become impossible to ignore.
Croatia’s Baby Lasagne put on a good show, teaching the audience a new move – a repetitive arm pump. The humorously titled, Rim Tim Tagi Dim, loosely serves as the name of a fictitious folk dance from the native village our wee food item is leaving.
On the ground in Malmö, the vibe has been sedated all week, both in the arena during rehearsals and indeed around a city with a large middle-eastern community. The widely criticised inclusion of Israel has seen the city patrolled by (some mighty attractive) Swedish, Danish and Norwegian police and coastguard, increased security checkpoints for fans, press and hotel guests, plus a reduced program in the EuroVillage public space. ‘Free Palestine’ chants have been heard over Eden Golan’s performance of Hurricane. The EBU had rejected the originally titled October Rain earlier this year, however with revised lyrics the country’s entry was accepted along with the line, ‘Eurovision is a non-political music event and not a contest between governments.’
The Netherlands’ Joost Klein was disqualified ahead of the grand final (unrelated to Israel), while artists from Ireland, Switzerland and Greece failed to fly their flags during the 3rd dress rehearsal (likely related to Israel). And French contestant Slimane interrupted his dress rehearsal performance with an emotional call for peace, giving voice to those in the arena and behind the scenes areas, a sentiment echoed by the rapturous applause here in the press centre:
“We need to be united by love and peace. Everyone wants to sing their song but they want to be united by love and peace.”
In tonight’s live and televised broadcast three artists called for peace, and there was loud booing of Martin Österdahl, the EBU’s Executive Supervisor of the contest.
We’ve moderated comments on DNA’s social media posts and are aware of the loud and varied expressions of our audience. Our coverage at Eurovision is focussed on the artist and their performance, with more than a side-eye trained on the fit and homoerotic dancers writhing around them.
A cross-section of musical genres, costume campery (we’re looking at you Finland), and whimsical stage antics define this year’s grand final. Host country Sweden sent Norwegian twins Marcus & Martinus who opened the show with their club hit Unforgettable. Austria’s Kaleen rounded off the 25 song list with her club hit, We Will Rave.
Best staging this year goes to Ireland’s Bambie Thug, who presented Doomsday Blues as a visual feast of pagan witchcraft. It is pure theatre and one of two gender non-binary allegories, the other being Nemo’s The Code.
The UK’s Olly Alexander promised us gay, and delivered. Unfortunately, UK garnered zero points from the public, but we still undertook an extensive search to find his laddish dancers’ Instagram handles.
Homegrown Aussies Electric Fields failed to qualify for the final with One Milkali (One Blood) and were sadly dismissed from the competition on Tuesday night. However, in repeat fashion for Cyprus (last year sending Andrew Lambrou), they’ve enlisted another Sydneysider, Silia Kapsis, who has dual Cypriot and Greek heritage. And so Australians had someone to root for – helped by her four male dancers removing their shirts near the conclusion of the three minute bop, Liar. They placed 15th in the final tally.
Third time host Petra Mede, with Malin Åkerman (where are you Måns Zermelow), delivered recycled jokes during the semi-finals about the show’s running time, but freshened it up with a few nods to Eurovision large gay audience.
And this one from semi-final 2:
Eurovision despite this year’s hang-ups remains entertaining television. Far from being united by love and peace, 2024 has still delivered a fresh crop of Eurovision favourites that are weird, whimsical and singable, although some are best forgotten. Onward to Zürich!
