It’s been a long 36-year wait but they’ve finally done it! Switzerland has claimed victory at the 68th annual Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) with their representative, Nemo, who performed “The Code”. Nemo goes down in history as they are the first-ever openly non-binary person to win Eurovision and claims another win for the LGBTQ+ community.
Triumphant after a tense round of voting during the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, Nemo is now the third winner for Switzerland, following in the footsteps of legendary icons, Lys Assia—best known for winning the very first ESC in 1956—and Canadian superstar, Céline Dion. Nemo is certainly in good company and their incredible voice on “The Code” was absolutely flawless on the night, so much so that we expect them to go on to become an international star, following their successful win.
Nemo won with an incredible 591 points, where they topped the jury votes and claimed 12 points from 22 out of 37 countries. As the jury points were being given out, 12 points were sent to Switzerland from Ukraine, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Malta, Albania, Denmark, Spain, Georgia, Greece, Estonia, Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Finland, Portugal, Norway, Latvia, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden. As for the public’s televote, they managed fifth place.
On the other side, Croatia came second with Baby Lasanga and his song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”, claiming 547 points, going on to top the televote and coming in third with the juries. They managed to receive 12 points from the juries of Cyprus and Serbia.
In third place was Ukraine who scored a total of 453 points. Represented by alyona alyona & Jerry Heil with the song “Teresa & Maria”, going on to come fifth in the jury vote where they received 12 points from Czechia and Moldova, while they came third in the televote.
As the Switzerland representative accepted the trophy from two-time winner Loreen, Nemo said “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and stand for peace and dignity for every person.”
Born in 1999 in Biel, a quaint bilingual town in Switzerland, Nemo has demonstrated musical talent from a young age, mastering the violin, piano, and drums.
Nemo shot to fame in 2016 after a viral appearance on SRF Virus (#Cypher), catapulting them into the spotlight. Following this breakthrough, Nemo released two EPs, boasting seven chart-placing hits on the official Swiss Singles Chart.
The year 2020 marked a transformative period for Nemo, who ventured into songwriting and production for other artists while expanding their repertoire to include English-language releases.
Through their music, Nemo explores themes such as gender identity, mental health, and the quest for belonging in today’s world.
Their incredibly stunning Eurovision Song Contest performance was certainly a stand-out where they displayed flawless vocals and an unforgettable staging that featured a huge circular spinning disc—a spinning top—that they superbly controlled and used to create a stunning presentation alongside choreography, all of which must’ve taken hours upon hours of rehearsing—which obviously paid off.
The song, “The Code”, was written by Benjamin Alasu, Lasse Midtsian Nymann, Linda Dale, and Nemo Mettler, while it was produced by Lasse Midtsian Nymann, Benjamin Alasu, Tom Oehler, Wojciech Kostrzewa, Pele Loriano, Nemo Mettler. and Nikodem Milewski. As for the staging, Fredrik Rydman acted as Director.
With Nemo’s incredible win, the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is set to be hosted in Switzerland. News about the 69th contest will start to trickle out in the coming months as they start to prepare and sort everything out.
While we wait, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 has been revealed to be hosted in Spain this year, following France’s second win in a row.
The full results from the ESC 2024 have been revealed on the official Eurovision social media pages as well as the official Eurovision website.
