It’s been a while since the Eurovision Song Contest was held, but the subject is still in the news. This time it is not about the Dutch broadcast Joost Klein, but about winner Nemo from Switzerland.
Nemo criticizes the EBU
Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest this year with their song ‘The Code’ for Switzerland. Thanks to their win, the song festival will also take place in Switzerland next year. Nemo has probably let the win sink in for a while, but the whole event still left a bad taste. The Swiss artist recently spoke out critically about the EBU, the organizer of the Songestival. Nemo believes that the organizer did not do enough to support the artists during the charged edition of the event. The show was extremely charged due to Israel’s participation and the singer believes this overshadowed the entire competition, the singer told the BBC.
According to Nemo, the atmosphere backstage was very tense. “Situations have arisen that are still being investigated by the EBU. They were supposed to contact us, but this did not happen. I honestly think it is a shame that the EBU is taking so long.” Participating in the Eurovision Song Contest made Nemo feel lonely. They also believe that the EBU was not there enough for the artists. “I really hope that next year things will be different to make sure the mental part of the game is well taken care of.”
Improvement comes too late for the Eurovision Song Contest
In June this year, the EBU had already indicated that improvements were being made following an independent investigation into the previous Eurovision Song Contest. The atmosphere behind the scenes was not only experienced as a problem by Nemo. Several delegations have expressed their criticism about the atmosphere. Shortly after their victory, Nemo already indicated that this edition of the song festival was not just “love and unity” for them. “That makes me very sad,” he said at the time.
Nemo also had clashes with the EBU during the event in Malmö. For example, the singer was not allowed to take a non-binary flag into the arena. Other pride flags were allowed. Several rainbow flags and trans flags were spotted in the green room. Yet Nemo had to smuggle their non-binary flag without being seen. The EBU has since apologized for this incident. The song with which Nemo won the Eurovision Song Contest, ‘The Code’, is about their personal journey of discovery into their non-binary identity.
