The Eurovision Song Contest has given us many memorable moments over the years, and this year’s edition is definitely one for the history books. After a tense grand final voting, Swiss singer Nemo made history as the first non-binary Eurovision winner with their song “The Code”.
Nemo, who uses they/them pronouns, defied the odds to come out victorious in the Eurovision grand final. Croatia’s Baby Lasagna emerged as a front-runner with “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” and managed to win the public vote, but the jury eventually decided in Nemo’s favor.
The Swiss contender won 22 sets of the maximum 12 points during the jury voting, for a total of 365 points. They came in fifth in the televoting, behind Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, Israel’s Eden Golan, Ukraine’s Alyona Alyona and Jerry Heil, and France’s Slimane, but that didn’t stop them from winning the competition with a grand total of 591 points.
Nemo made history as the first non-binary Eurovision winner, and their song “The Code” is inspired by their journey to “crack their own code and enter the kingdom of authenticity”. Nemo’s win is also a huge deal for Switzerland since this marks the first time this country won Eurovision since 1988, when Celine Dion emerged as the winner with “Ne partez pas sans moi”.