Swiss artist Nemo advances to Eurovision final

Could Switzerland secure its third contest win with Nemo? Keystone/Peter Schneider

Switzerland has reached the final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the fifth time in a row. Nemo won over the audience in Malmö, Sweden, on Thursday evening with a performance of "The Code".

With Nemo advancing to the final, Switzerland has a chance to win the Eurovision Song Contest for a third time on Saturday. 

Nemo competed against 15 other acts, with ten advancing. Nemo’s entry into the final is hardly surprising. The Swiss act is one of the contest favourites, leading in the betting offices for weeks until Croatia overtook Switzerland last week.

The song “The Code” by the 24-year-old non-binary musical talent is about Nemo’s journey, which began with the realisation that they were neither a man nor a woman. Musically, “The Code” ranges from rap to drum ‘n’ bass to opera. Switzerland previously won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 with Lys Assia and in 1988 with Céline Dion. 

+ Switzerland at Eurovision: the colourful hits and misses

Israel also makes it to final 

The most controversial participant in this year’s contest is probably Israeli artist Eden Golan, who is competing with the song “Hurricane”. While the 20-year-old singer was booed during rehearsals, the applause following Thursday evening’s performance was thunderous. As in the previous year, the motto of the music competition is”United By Music”. 

According to local police estimates, 10,000 to 12,000 people protested against Israel’s participation before the semi-final. They demanded the country’s exclusion from the music competition in the context of the Middle East conflict. Among them was climate activist Greta Thunberg. 

The other winners of the second semi-final include Joost Klein from the Netherlands, who made it to the final with the song “Europapa” and is also one of the favourites to win. Austria also made it to the final with the techno-inspired song “We Will Rave” by Kaleen. 

Other new finalists included the Norwegian myth rock group Gåte, who won through with “Ulveham”, as well as the longest song in Eurovision history, “(Nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi” by Estonians 5Miinust & Puuluup.

Specialist juries are not allowed in the semi-finals this year and will only have a say in the final. Latvia, Greece, Georgia and Armenia also made it through to the final, while Denmark, Malta, Albania, the Czech Republic, San Marino and Belgium were eliminated. 

Big Five countries also on stage 

For the first time, the representatives of the Big Five, i.e. the biggest sponsor countries of the Eurovision Song Contest, performed in the semi-finals. France, Italy and Spain took to the stage on Thursday, after the UK, Germany and host country Sweden had already performed their songs on Tuesday. 

The final of the music competition will take place on Saturday. In addition to those who qualified on Thursday evening, Nemo will then face other favourites such as Croatian Baby Lasagna and Ukrainian duo Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil. A total of 26 countries will compete in the final at the Malmö Arena. 

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc

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