There’s a certain irony to the Eurovision grand prize going to the country famous for staying neutral, given the many tiffs, clashes, and protests that roiled the famed European song contest this year.
Switzerland’s Nemo took home the title Saturday night with their song “The Code,” becoming the first non-binary artist to win the competition. Switzerland hasn’t won a Eurovision contest since 1988.
Nemo finished just ahead of Croatian contestant and favorite, Baby Lasagna. Points-wise, these two performers led the field with an approximate hundred-point gap between Baby Lasagna and the third place finisher, Ukrainian duo Teresa & Maria.
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It was a tidy finish to a chaotic competition. Just hours before performers took the Grand Finale stage Saturday night, the European Broadcasting Union announced the abrupt disqualification of Dutch contestant Joost Klein, who had been ranked fifth going into the finals and had been mysteriously pulled from the lineup during Friday’s dress rehearsals.
It was later revealed that Klein was under police investigation for a reported backstage incident with a female production crew member. While the EBU gave scant details, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said Klein had made a “threatening movement” toward a camera when he realized he was being filmed without his consent, but claimed he never touched the camera or camerawoman. Klein’s expulsion was the first time any contestant had been booted from the show so late in the competition.
Before Klein’s dramatic fall, he and several other contestants had shown open hostility to the Israeli entrant, singer Eden Golan. At a press conference on Thursday, Klein directed a loaded question at Golan from the table, asking whether her participation in the contest posed a safety risk to everyone else. When the moderator told Golan she need not answer, Klein erupted, “Why not?”
Golan and Israel were subject to a long wave of protests over the course of the competition. Several groups had called on the EBU to revoke Israel’s invitation over its massive military campaign in Gaza, as the organizer had done in 2022 when it suspended Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Golan was booed at a dress rehearsal on Wednesday ahead of her semi-finals performance.
European spectators—including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg—continued protesting Golan and Israel’s inclusion in the competition. Outside the Malmö venue, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, donned keffiyehs, and raised signs that read “Welcome to the Genocide Song Contest” and “Stop Using Eurovision to Whitewash the Israeli War Crimes.” Several of them were eventually detained by Swedish police.
Swiss Nemo’s win on Saturday night also avoided a potentially awkward trophy handover, as last year’s winner Loreen reportedly told producers she would refuse to crown Golan if Israel won the competition. Loreen, a Swede of Moroccan descent, previously said she did not support calls to boycott the competition over Israel’s participation.
Accepting the trophy, Nemo told the crowd, “I want to say thank you so much – I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person in this world.”
With Nemo’s win, the famously neutral Switzerland captured its third-ever Eurovision title and a historic win for non-binary people. But the greater victory might just be its success in avoiding an atomic flare-up between contestants, spectators, and producers—and the countries that they represent.
