Swiss singer Nemo early yesterday won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with The Code, an operatic pop-rap ode to the singer’s journey toward embracing a nongender identity.
Switzerland’s contestant beat Croatian rocker Baby Lasagna to the title by winning 591 points from a combination of national juries and viewers around the world.
Nemo, 24, is the first nonbinary winner of the contest that has long been embraced as a safe haven by the LGBT community. Nemo is also the first Swiss winner since 1988, when Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion competed under the Swiss flag.
Photo: AFP
“Thank you so much,” Nemo said after the result from Saturday’s final was announced soon after midnight. “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person.”
At a post-victory news conference, Nemo expressed pride in accepting the trophy for “people that are daring to be themselves and people that need to be heard and need to be understood. We need more compassion, we need more empathy.”
In Zagreb, a crowd gathered at a square to follow Baby Lasagna, who finished second with 547 points.
“There is no room for sadness, only pride,” 34-year-old spectator Nina Plese said. “This young man has brought the whole of Croatia together. We can be proud of him and he deserves to be welcomed back home.”
Nemo, Baby Lasagna and Israel’s Eden Golan, had been bookmaker favorites to win the competition, watched around the world by millions of lovers of pop music — and kitschy shows.
Twenty-five nations competed on Saturday, but much of the focus has centered on the controversy of Israel being able to take part.
When Golan went on stage to perform her Hurricane, both cheers and boos could be heard from the audience in the Malmo Arena.
Boos could also be heard while Israel delivered its points to other acts and any time a country gave Hurricane high scores.
Golan finished fifth with 375 points.
Organizers had banned all flags other than those of the participating countries, but Nemo had smuggled in a flag representing nonbinary people which they displayed during the show’s introduction.
“I had to smuggle my flag in,” Nemo told a news conference after the win, adding that “maybe Eurovision needs a little bit of fixing.”
The young performer also said that the experience had been “really intense and not just pleasant all the way.”
“There were a lot of things that didn’t seem like it was all about love and unity and that made me really sad,” Nemo told reporters.
Outside the arena, police pushed back protesters where more than 100 demonstrators waved flags and chanted “Free Palestine.”
Diverse Malmo is home to the country’s largest community of Palestinian origin, and police said that at least 5,000 people gathered to protest in the city in the afternoon.
The European Broadcasting Union, which oversees the event, confirmed in March that Golan would take part, despite calls for her exclusion from thousands of musicians around the world.
The same month, contestants from nine countries, including Nemo, called for a lasting ceasefire.
In Tel Aviv, Eurovision fans gathered to watch the show on big screens, and at the packed Layla bar in Tel Aviv, they said they hoped voters would show Israel some love.
An Israeli victory would have meant that “maybe we are not hated so much, and that the music really won,” said Tal Bendersky, draped in an Israeli flag, before the results were announced.
The 23-year-old from southern Israel said he had come to Layla, which prides itself as being the best gay bar in Tel Aviv, “to celebrate with all the people that love the Israeli people.”
The contest itself was also rattled earlier Saturday by the disqualification of Dutch contestant Joost Klein due to an incident with a camerawoman.
Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said the incident had involved Klein making a “threatening movement” after he was filmed directly after coming off stage “against clearly made agreements.”
Additional reporting by AP
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