The Code singer has addressed some of the controversies at this year’s event, including criticizing the new rules on Pride flags as “stupid as f**k.”
The Eurovision Song Contest celebrates its 69th year in Switzerland, where it first took place in 1956. BBC will air all three nights, including the two semi-finals on May 13, and May 15, followed by the grand final on May 17. Viewers outside the UK can also watch the show by using a VPN to access.
Eurovision 2024 winner Nemo has expressed opposition to Israel’s continued participation in the contest. Nemo represented Switzerland and won with their song The Code during a particularly controversial year for Eurovision.
Advertisement Amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, calls for a Eurovision boycott resurfaced last year if Israel remained in the competition. Around that time, Nemo joined eight other performers in a group statement during the broadcast, expressing solidarity with Palestine ahead of the event.
As this year’s Eurovision approaches, the contest is once again under scrutiny over Israel’s involvement. Over 70 artists and performers linked to Eurovision – including two past winners – signed an open letter this week urging for Israel to be excluded from the event.
When asked by HuffPost UK if they had an opinion on the matter, Nemo replied:
Yeah, I do. I personally feel like it doesn’t make sense that Israel is a part of this Eurovision. And of Eurovision in general right now. I don’t know how much I want to get into detail, but I would say, I don’t support the fact that Israel is part of Eurovision at the moment,
Nemo said in the interview
They later provided HuffPost UK with a follow-up statement, saying:
I support the call for Israel’s exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel’s actions are fundamentally at odds with the values that Eurovision claims to uphold — peace, unity, and respect for human rights.
In response to artists calling for Israel to be banned from Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) issued a statement earlier this week: “We understand the concerns and deeply held views around the current conflict in the Middle East.
“The EBU is not immune to global events but, together, with our members, it is our role to ensure the Contest remains – at its heart – a universal event that promotes connections, diversity and inclusion through music.
“We all aspire to keep the Eurovision Song Contest positive and inclusive and aspire to show the world as it could be, rather than how it necessarily is.”
The statement went on to say: “As a reminder, the EBU is an association of public service broadcasters, not governments, who are all eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest every year if they meet the requisite requirements.
“It is not our role to make comparisons between conflicts. As part of its mission to secure a sustainable future for public service media, the EBU is supporting our Israeli Member KAN against the threat from being privatised or shut down by the Israeli government.
“The EBU remains aligned with other international organisations that have similarly maintained their inclusive stance towards Israeli participants in major competitions at this time.”
Although they’ve previously expressed support for Palestine, Nemo said during the conversation that withdrawing from last year’s Eurovision was “never” an option. They felt compelled to use the platform to share their personal story through their winning song, The Code.
It was very much just me realising that this story is important to tell. And if I’m not there to tell it, and to say it, then no one else will,
they claimed
I think I could have not gone through all of that if I was just singing kind of a song that was a cute song, and I would feel happy singing it. I needed this sense of direction and purpose, and that was what never made me even question being there.
Nemo went on:
“And that’s how it feels for me this year, as well,” they added, referring to their upcoming performance at the contest. Nemo also addressed the recent rule changes regarding flags at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
Under the new rules, audience members can wave any flags or emblems they choose (provided they comply with Swiss law), but performers on stage or in “official spaces” are only allowed to display their own country’s flag.
This change effectively bans Pride flags from the Eurovision stage — a decision Nemo called “stupid as fuck.” “That’s so dumb,” Nemo said. “I don’t get it. It’s so random sometimes. I just feel like… why? You know what I mean?
You can’t be known for like the queerest thing in the world, basically, a contest that has been associated with queerness and gay culture for so long, and then be like, ‘oh, we don’t allow Pride flags for the artists’. And especially after last year, when I had to smuggle in the non-binary flag, and they were like, ‘you can’t have it on stage’, they told me. And then after the contest, the official statement was like, ‘it was never forbidden’. But then this year, they’re pro-actively [forbidding flags on stage]. I don’t know, it’s very strange to me.
I don’t know, it feels a bit confusing to me. Also, this rule feels not thought through, at all. I don’t know who decided that, and how they decided it, and what was the reason for it, especially after last year, but it just feels strange. It feels not really thought through. I don’t know.
Nemo continued
They added: “It doesn’t even feel ill-intended. I don’t know, I’m confused by it. I think that’s the only thing I can say. I don’t think it makes sense at all.
“And it’s harming, I feel like, the cause of Eurovision. I don’t know, it’s just weird to me.”
Following their 2024 Eurovision win, Nemo will return as a guest performer at this year’s contest, set to take place in Basel later this month. They also recently released a new single, Casanova, with an accompanying music video.
Source: HuffPost