Eurovision 2024 Highlights: Nemo, From Switzerland, Wins Song Contest Final (2024)

Pinned

Nemo is the first nonbinary winner of Eurovision.

To more casual observers, it’s simply a fun, camp — and often bewildering — night of TV, with extravagant songs and outrageous outfits. But the contest also often has political undertones, and the run-up to this year’s event in Malmo, Sweden, was overshadowed by the war in Gaza. For months, thousands of Eurovision fans, as well as dozens of pro-Palestinian organizations, lobbied the competition’s organizers to ban Israel because of its war in Gaza.

On Saturday, around 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through the Malmo city center to protest Israel’s involvement, and as the final prepared to kick off, a handful of vocal protesters were removed by police from in front of Malmo Arena.

Here’s what else to know:

• Eurovision’s organizers refused to bar Israel’s entry. Eden Golan, a 20-year-old pop star, represented Israel with “Hurricane,” a ballad that obliquely references Israeli grief over the Oct. 7 attacks last year. Her performance was met with some boos in the arena.

• Organizers banned the Netherlands’ entry. The European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the contest, said in a statement that it was “investigating an incident” involving the Dutch artist, Joost Klein, and on Saturday morning, a Swedish police spokeswoman said officers were investigating a man “suspected of unlawful threats” toward a Eurovision employee.

• This was the third time that Malmo, a city of 360,000 people on Sweden’s southwest coast, has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. In the last 30 years, the city has undergone a transformation to become the country’s youngest, fastest growing metropolis.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Now for the numbers game.

At the end, the participating countries take turns announcing how many points their jury allocated to the contestants — a process that takes a while, since all 37 participants are included, not just the 26 in the final. Each country allocates a total of 58 points in installments of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 or 12 points. (Why they don’t give out 9 or 11 points is one of the universe’s great mysteries.)

Once the 37 jury votes have been reported, we switch over to the results of the public vote, which are announced by the hosts. Each country’s audience gets 58 points, just like the juries.

Televotes from the “rest of the world” bloc are also allocated 58 points, meaning even though there are 7 billion potential voters, their votes have the same weight in the competition as the tiny principality of San Marino, population 34,000.

The public vote can dramatically change the ranking: In 2022, Britain was leading after the jury votes, but Ukraine earned the most ever public vote points and vaulted to the top spot. Last year, the jury-favorite Sweden won the contest by surviving a last-minute surge from Finland, which earned the most points from the public vote.

In other words: It’s not over until it’s over.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Time for the favorite: Baby Lasagna, from Croatia.

In a recent interview, Purisic said that although the song may seem a little ridiculous, it was also a serious attempt to draw attention to Croatia’s ongoing problem with youth emigration.

Shortly before he wrote the track, Purisic said, his best friend had moved away from their hometown, Umag, on Croatia’s western coast, in search of work in the city. Many of Purisic’s other friends and relatives had already departed further afield to Germany and Ireland, he added. “I was really sad about it, and started to think about how much young people are leaving Balkan countries because they can’t afford rent, they can’t find a job and they have to go broken hearted,” Purisic said.

Purisic said that he had considered leaving Croatia a few times — once, to work on a cruise ship — but “every time I got cold feet.”

Purisic said that winning the song contest wasn’t his aim. After a long career as a rock songwriter for hire, he said, last year he considered changing tack, and applied for a stable job in Croatia’s tourism industry. But with the success of “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” — which has had millions of views on YouTube — he now hoped to build a career as Baby Lasagna, he said. “If I do that,” he added, “then I win.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Will Nemo, from Switzerland, be Eurovision’s first nonbinary star?

Throughout its 68 year history, Eurovision has often featured L.G.B.T.Q. performers, with past winners including Dana International, a transgender woman, and Conchita Wurst, a drag act.

Yet this year is the first time Eurovision has prominently featured nonbinary acts like Nemo and Ireland’s entrant, Bambie Thug.

In a recent video interview, Nemo, 24, said they were “amazed” that Eurovision fans were connecting with their “deeply personal” track. “I think the message behind the song is quite universal,” Nemo said: “We all know that feeling of wanting to break free from something — everyone has a code to break.

“In my case, it was breaking free from the gender binary and finding my place beyond that. But it could be, like, someone unhappy in their job and wanting to let go.”

Nemo, whose full name is Nemo Mettler and who first found fame in Switzerland as a teenage battle rapper, said that they became aware they were nonbinary about three years ago. It took time to share that news with their family, let alone with their fans. “It’s scary to open up,” Nemo said, “but I think it’s in taking risks and opening up where art becomes really interesting.”

If Nemo does triumph tonight, they’ll become Switzerland’s first Eurovision winner since Celine Dion in 1988. “It’s so random she won,” Nemo said, pointing out that Dion was Canadian. “I would love to be the next person after her.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Can Angelina Mango become Italy’s next global pop star?

Will Angelina Mango, Italy’s representative this year, follow their lead?

In her track “La Noia” (“The Boredom”), Mango sings in Italian about the joys of boredom, over a catchy cumbia beat. (She has also released a Spanish-language version to broaden its appeal.)

Mango, 23, has already had several hit singles in Italy and critics there consider her a rising star. But, she said in a recent interview, she is naturally a “very anxious” person, and so was trying not to not think about the global audience watching Eurovision.

“La Noia” was a call for people to use moments of boredom for self analysis, Mango said. “Sometimes we need to think about our past, and about everything bad that happened in our lives, so we can then see the positive,” she added.

When she was 13, her father Giuseppe Mango, a singer, had a heart attack while performing onstage, and died before reaching hospital. Two years later, Mango moved from southern Italy to Milan. “I changed my home, my friends, everything,” she said.

Some of her songs were about those challenges, Mango added, but “La Noia” was ultimately upbeat. “Everyone has something that makes them feel pain,” Mango said, “but I found a way to be happy and positive.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Can Britain’s Olly Alexander prove the critics wrong?

Then, in March, Alexander unveiled “Dizzy,” his Eurovision song, and British critics quickly lost hope that he might storm the show.

Marcus Wratten, writing in PinkNews, an L.G.B.T.Q. website, called “Dizzy” a “solid effort,” but one lacking “the soaring chorus” of a winner. Laura Snapes, in The Guardian, said the track was “far too safe to leave anyone reeling.”

To prove his critics wrong, Alexander will need to put on an excellent show. In a preview performance on Tuesday, he danced with a group of topless boxers in a set that resembled a sports locker room. Screens at the back made it appear — bizarrely — like the room was hurtling through space.

Whatever you think of his song, there is an extra reason to watch Alexander closely: To see whether he makes a statement on Israel’s war in Gaza. Of all this year’s acts, Alexander has faced the most pressure from pro-Palestinian groups to withdraw from the event in protest over Israel’s presence at the comeptition.

Last year, Alexander signed an open letter that described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide,” and he has since called for an end to “atrocities” in the region. But he has also repeatedly refused to boycott the song contest.

In a recent interview with The Times of London, Alexander said that he had found the pressure tough. “I wish there wasn’t a war or this insane humanitarian crisis,” he said. “But I still believe it’s a good thing when people come together for entertainment. That’s why I wanted to do Eurovision.”

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Bambie Thug brings black magic and pro-Palestinian sentiment.

At one point, Bambie Thug — real name Bambie Ray Robinson — stood in the middle of a pentagram, encircled by burning candles. Then they danced seductively with a man dressed like a demon. As the track ended, the phrase “Crown the Witch” appeared on huge screens at the back of the stage.

In interviews, Bambie Thug has said that they practice witchcraft, and that making potions had helped them cope with traumatic events in their life. “I got into it as a kid,” they told The Irish Times, adding that they grew up in small-town Ireland, where it felt like there was little else to do.

The dark spectacle of “Doomsday Blue” has won Bambie Thug fans on social media — as has the singer’s outspoken pro-Palestinian stance and criticism of Israel’s involvement in Eurovision.

Eurovision organizers ban artists from making political comments on its stages, saying the competition is meant to unite, not divide. But the Irish entry has tested those rules. At a Tuesday news conference, Bambie Thug said that Eurovision had demanded they remove pro-Palestinian slogans from their outfit. On Thursday, they wrote on Instagram that “my heart and prayers are with the people of Palestine.”

“To be clear,” they added in that social media post, “being pro Palestinian does not mean I am antisemitic, it means I am anti war, anti occupation, anti oppression and anti killing of innocent civilians and children!”

In The Irish Times interviews, Bambie Thug said that if they were not participating in Eurovision, they would be boycotting the event because of Israel’s involvement. “I would be turning off,” they said.

The only reason they were competing this year, they added, was because pulling out would mean “one less pro-Palestinian voice” onstage.

Next to the stage, Israel.

In a recent interview, Golan, 20, appeared calm and composed, and said that she wouldn’t let the uproar affect her. Representing Israel on the world stage “has such huge significance and meaning, because of what we’re going through,” she said. “I won’t let anything break me, or move me off track.”

In February, Israel announced Golan’s Eurovision song: “October Rain,” an apparent reference to last year’s Hamas attacks, in which Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage. The European Broadcasting Union objected that the title and some of the song’s lyrics were overly political, and asked Israel to change them. Golan tweaked the song, which is now called “Hurricane.”

Golan said her focus had long moved on from debates around what her track means, or whether she should be at Eurovision. Instead, she said, she had spent weeks incessantly rehearsing “Hurricane” — sometimes into the early hours of the morning — to ensure her three-minute Eurovision performance would be perfect.

“What’s under my control is to give the best performance ever,” Golan said: “to touch people’s souls, to make them feel something.”

Read the full article on Eden Golan’s journey to Eurovision.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Ukraine’s entrants want attention on their country.

Given that history, Ukraine’s entry this year, Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil, a rapper and singer who are just taking the stage, could do well with “Teresa and Maria,” an emotional song that suggests that everybody has the potential to act like a saint. The duo named the song after Mother Teresa and the Virgin Mary.

In a recent interview, Heil — real name Yana Oleksandrivna Shemaieva — said that Eurovision was a vital opportunity to draw attention to the country’s plight. “We need to show the world that we still need their help,” she said.

The song was not about the war, said Alyona, whose real name is Aliona Savranenko. But when she and Heil wrote the hymn-like tune, they often heard air raid sirens to signal impending Russian attacks, Alyona added: “It’s normal in Ukraine now.”

Heil said that she sometimes ignored air raid alerts because they had become such an everyday occurrence. Her attitude toward Russian attacks was, “I will just see how it goes,” she said. Each one she survived, she added, made her feel “lucky to have another day in my heart.”

As much as the pair want to win tonight, Heil said it would be a bigger victory if the contest’s fans would listen to Ukrainian pop year-round. “That is the only way we can be visible every day,” Heil said, rather than “from Eurovision to Eurovision.”

Listening to Ukrainian music would increase music fans’ empathy for her country, she added: “We want people to feel that we are equal.”

Sweden: A pop music powerhouse, in Eurovision and the charts.

ABBA soon became one of the biggest international pop acts in history, and the small Scandinavian country went on to many other popular groups, including Ace of Base and the Hives, as well as solo artists like Robyn, Fever Ray and Zara Larsson. On the production side, Avicii made his mark with a combination of anthemic electronic beats and catchy melodic lines.

Fast-forward to January 2024, when Ariana Grande’s “Yes, And?” made the Swedish music maker Max Martin the producer with the most No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He has helped shape the sound of several decades of pop music, having also landed No. 1s with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.

Perhaps even more important for the music industry in general, the reclusive Swede has helped reinvent the collaborative, team-based model that now dominates the creation of commercial music, with writers and producers working hand in hand to come up with a line here, a hook there. For better or for worse, it takes a village to get to the chorus, then another village to write it.

As for Eurovision, although countries rarely win two years in a row, Sweden continues to be a strong competitor, this year with its entry “Unforgettable.” The performers, Marcus and Martinus, may be Norwegian, but the team behind them is very much Swedish, and includes the songwriter Jimmy “Joker” Thornfeldt, who also had a hand in last year’s winning song, “Tattoo.”

If this year doesn’t bring a record-breaking eighth Swedish win, there’s always next year. And the years after that.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

In Tel Aviv, Israelis rally around their Eurovision act.

Gaunt, a serious Eurovision fan, said that tonight’s competition was “a ray of sunshine” amid many depressing months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Israel is among the favorites to win Eurovision, according to several bookmakers. But their contestant, Eden Golan, has had a bumpy path to the final. Eurovision’s organizers found fault with an earlier version of Golan’s song, which they said was too political. The track was initially called “October Rain,” an apparent reference to Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault. It is now called “Hurricane.”

Gaunt said she didn’t see Israel’s song as political. “It’s not about Israel needing to win, or to enter Gaza,” she said. “It’s a song about a tragedy that touches everyone here.”

For months, pro-Palestinian protesters have campaigned for Eurovision organizers to ban Israel from this year’s competition because of the country’s war in Gaza, and just before the start of this year’s final, thousands demonstrated against Israel’s participation in the European song competition.

Israelis, however, are enamored with Golan. “She’s incredible,” said Yarden Pravda, 23, a Shpagat bartender. “At such a young age to stand up against all the hate she’s receiving, it shows incredible personal strength.”

Even though Pravda said Israel has a great song and contestant, she didn’t know if Golan would win. “It’s politics,” she said. “But if it didn’t have to do with politics, she would win.”

A decade ago, Conchita Wurst won for Austria.

“I think this moment, the win, happened to all of us,” he said. “People will tell me where they were and how their life took a turn from then on,” he said. “There are always big stories and emotions.”

Eurovision, which has been referred to as “the queer Olympics” or “gay Christmas,” has long been popular with L.G.B.T.Q. people. By 2014, the competition had already seen a number of gay, lesbian and bisexual participants, as well as several drag acts, and a trans winner as early as 1998. (This year there are two nonbinary entries.)

Yet none of those performers received as explosive a reception as Conchita Wurst, became a worldwide symbol of the divisions between liberals and conservatives, with some calling her performance a high-profile victory for queer representation, and others seeing it as a sign of the degradation of traditional Western values.

At the time of his win, Neuwirth was 25 and a newcomer to the international pop scene, and so his victory was a huge surprise for him and for all of Austria.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

How to watch the Eurovision grand final.

Malmo is your Eurovision host city this year.

In the last 30 years, Malmo has undergone a transformation from a working-class city near bankruptcy to Sweden’s youngest, fastest growing metropolis, thanks to investments in higher education, urban planning and, not least, a five-mile bridge connecting Malmo to neighboring Copenhagen, in Denmark, which inspired the popular crime series “The Bridge.”

The city’s educational offerings — there are specialist schools for circus performers, cartoonists, skateboarders and game developers — and affordable housing have been big draws for students and people in creative fields since the 1990s. About half Malmo’s residents are under 35, and a third hail from countries other than Sweden — 186 to be exact — making it one of Sweden’s most diverse cities.

The musicians arriving in town for Eurovision join Malmo’s thriving club and music scene. The lo-fi house musician D.J. Seinfeld is currently the most internationally recognized Malmo artist, Lood said. Around town, you can still sometimes spot members of The Cardigans, the Swedish rock band, who moved to Malmo 30 years ago.

But it is as the setting for TV series that Malmo has likely had the most pop culture impact. “The Bridge,” which was an international hit, aired its final episode in 2018; “Thin Blue Line,” another popular Malmo-based law enforcement series, will air its third season this fall.

Police procedurals are not the only TV genre to come out of the city, however. Amanda Romare is currently turning a novel about her struggles to find love in Malmo into a mini-series, “Diary of a Ditched Girl,” for Netflix.

Romare said that although it’s a dangerously small city for dating — “Behind every street corner you are liable to run into an ex” — there’s still room to find yourself in Malmo’s diverse subcultures and niches.

“It’s the perfect little big city,” she said.

Advertisem*nt

SKIP ADVERTIsem*nT

Before the final, a pro-Palestinian march fills downtown Malmo.

The demonstration, two days after a similar march in Malmo that the Swedish police said involved around 12,000 people, was the latest sign of some Eurovision fans’ discontent with Israel’s involvement in the high-profile contest because of the war in Gaza.

At Eurovision, singers representing their countries compete for votes from music-industry juries and a television audience. Although not part of Europe, Israel has competed since 1973 and won four times.

For months, pro-Palestinian groups have called on Eurovision’s organizer, the European Broadcasting Union, to ban Israel from the competition. Thousands of musicians, including pop stars and former Eurovision entrants, signed petitions that said there was a precedent for throwing Israel out of the event: In 2022, Eurovision banned Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The European Broadcasting Union has repeatedly dismissed the comparison and said Eurovision is an apolitical contest that aims to unite music fans, not divide them.

At Saturday’s protest, Loay Mogari, 39, a musician wearing a hoodie in the colors of the Palestinian flag, said that the Israeli government “were murderers.” He wanted participants in Saturday’s final to make pro-Palestinian statements from the stage “and say the truth about Palestine,” he said.

In comparison with the pro-Palestinian student protests at occupied college campuses in the United States, at which the police have made many arrests, the Malmo demonstrations were peaceful, with few police officers visible alongside the marchers and little disruption downtown.

There were no arrests at Saturday’s march, a police spokesman said in an email.

Ulf Bjereld, an expert in Swedish-Middle East relations at the University of Gothenburg, said in a telephone interview that many Swedes empathized with the protesters. There was “very strong discontent” in Swedish society toward Israel’s actions in Gaza, Bjereld said.

Since Israel invaded Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks in which Israel estimates about 1,200 people died, there has been a rise in antisemitic hate crimes in Sweden, according to data from Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention. There were 110 incidents between October and December 2023, the organization said in a recent report, up from 24 during the same period in the previous year.

Malmo is a city of about 360,000 people, a third of whom were born outside Sweden, including many from the Middle East. Over the past five months, pro-Palestinian protests have occurred regularly there and in other Swedish cities.

On Saturday, the marches included members of Jewish Uproar, a small group of Jewish activists protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Elias Rose Gordon, 23, a member wearing a skullcap in the colors of the Palestinian flag, said that Eurovision was “hypocritical” for allowing Israel into the contest when it had banned Russia.

Pro-Palestinian displays were not limited to downtown Malmo on Saturday. During a rehearsal for the Eurovision final, attendees on the floor of the Malmo Arena waved two Palestinian flags, according to Steve Baileys, 60, a British Eurovision fan who attended the event. Security quickly removed the item, Baileys added. (Eurovision did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has said that attendees are not allowed to wave Palestinian flags or banners with slogans about the war between Israel and Hamas.)

Slimane, who is representing France, stopped singing during the rehearsal to call for peace. “Sorry I don’t speak English very well,” he said: “Every artist here want to sing about love and sing about peace.”

Eurovision disqualifies the Dutch entrant hours before the final.

Shortly afterward, the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the contest, said in a statement that it was “investigating an incident” involving the Dutch artist. On Saturday morning, a Swedish police spokeswoman said in an email that officers were investigating a man “suspected of unlawful threats” toward a Eurovision employee and had passed a file to prosecutors to consider charges.

Eurovision organizers said in a new statement that it was Klein under investigation, and that “it would not be appropriate” for the musician to compete in Saturday’s final while a legal process was underway.

The decision caused an immediate uproar among Eurovision fans on social media, many of whom were backing Klein to win.

AVROTROS, the Dutch public broadcaster that picked Klein to represent the Netherlands at Eurovision, also objected to his disqualification.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the broadcaster said that the organizers’ decision was “very heavy and disproportionate.” The spokesperson said that, on Thursday, Klein made “a threatening movement” toward a camera operator who was trying to film him after his semifinal performance. The camera operator had continued recording Klein even though he had “repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be,” the spokesperson added.

Klein’s Eurovision journey, the spokesperson said, “shouldn’t have ended this way.”