Tag: Nemo

Basel It Is

The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Basel next year. The Swiss city is allowed to organize the event because Switzerland won the Song Contest earlier this year thanks to artist Nemo and the song The Code.

The Song Contest will be held in the St. Jakobshalle, which has a capacity of over twelve thousand visitors.

The battle for the organization of the Song Contest was between Basel and Geneva until the last moment. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has thoroughly tested the proposals of the two cities against set criteria. For example, a location with a capacity of at least ten thousand visitors must be available. The city must also offer enough hotel rooms and be easily accessible. Zurich and a collaboration between Bern and Bielle were previously eliminated.

The Eurovision Song Contest is organized each year by the country that won the previous year. Switzerland received the most points in May of this year with the song and performance of Nemo. The artist won in Malmö, after the Swedish Loreen had emerged as the winner a year earlier.

The Song Contest in Malmö did not go without a hitch this year. Dutch participant Joost Klein was disqualified just before the final due to an incident with a camerawoman. Earlier this month it was announced that he will not be prosecuted for this. Broadcaster AVROTROS wants to meet with the EBU again to discuss the disqualification.

AVROTROS, the broadcaster responsible for the Eurovision Song Contest in the Netherlands, has not yet committed to participating in the 2025 edition. Broadcasters from several countries complained about the unpleasant atmosphere behind the scenes at the event. AVROTROS says it only wants to participate if the EBU changes this.

The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest will be held on 13, 15 and 17 May. The exact dates have yet to be announced. It was recently announced that Montenegro will return after a two-year absence. Source: nu.nl

EBU Admits Mistake

The Eurovision Song Contest organization acknowledges that the flag policy at the door of the Malmö Arena was not working well this year, with people wrongly having to hand in their rainbow or other pride flags.

“Pride flags were not banned and were welcome alongside the flags of the participating countries,” the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) assured on Instagram.

“However, sometimes things do not go as planned during complex live events and we recognize that we could have done better. We regret that people were wrongly forced to hand in their flag or felt that this prevented them from being their authentic selves.”

The organization felt compelled to write something about its flag policy after a post appeared on Instagram earlier in the day to mark the start of Pride Month. Many followers called the post “hypocritical”, as Swiss winner Nemo claimed that they were not allowed to take the non-binary flag on stage. The artist had to “smuggle it in”.

The EBU emphasizes that it is “incredibly proud” of Nemo and all non-binary, trans and queer fans. “We are grateful to them for bringing this to our attention,” the EBU statement reads.

The European flag was also not allowed inside the music event. European Commissioner Margaritis Schinas subsequently asked the EBU for clarification. The broadcasting association then gave the “sensitive global political context” as an explanation. “It was never our intention to discredit the EU flag itself,” the EBU said. Source: nu.nl

First Bid

After Switzerland’s win at the Eurovision Song Contest, Geneva wants to host the 2025 edition. The Palexpo exhibition and events complex in the Swiss city has already submitted a bid to the Swiss broadcaster SSR, writes the newspaper Le Temps. Palexpo has coordinated the plans with the city council.

It is tradition that the winning country organizes the next edition. Geneva is the first city to report. Swiss media also takes into account the interest of cities such as Zurich, Basel and Bern. Previous Swiss editions of the Eurovision Song Contest were in Lugano (1956) and Lausanne (1989).

Geneva is located in the far west of Switzerland, on the border with France. It is a very international city, with offices of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross, among others.

Geneva is also home to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an umbrella organization of public broadcasters and organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest. The EBU played a leading role in this week’s edition. The organization was criticized for the decision to allow Israel to participate due to the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, while Russia has been banned since 2022 due to the war in Ukraine.

There was also a lot of dissatisfaction among fans and participants about the decision to disqualify the Dutch entry Joost Klein. At the final last night, there were boos and cheers in the audience when Eurovision boss Österdahl came into view.

Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time yesterday, with the song The Code by Nemo. He is the first non-binary winner of the song festival. Source: NOS.

Winner 2024

Switzerland is the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. Singer Nemo won with the song The Code. The Netherlands has been disqualified and Joost Klein was therefore missing on Saturday evening.

Nemo won the jury points convincingly: a total of 21 countries awarded ‘twelve points’ to The Code. The Netherlands also gave the most points to the Swiss song.

Switzerland, on the other hand, did not win the televoting. Ukraine received by far the most points from the viewers at home, after which it was Israel who emerged from the televote with the most points.

Nemo is the first non-binary person to win the Eurovision Song Contest. “I hope this match continues to deliver on its promise and stand for peace and dignity for all,” they said after the win.

Joost Klein was not allowed to perform his Europapa during the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. He was told earlier on Friday that he was excluded from the match because he had been involved in an incident. Klein allegedly made a threatening movement towards a female employee. Source: nu.nl.