Nemo won Eurovision 2024 for Switzerland with his song The code. Today, he joins protests against the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the festival, for keeping Israel in the competition. He did so by announcing this Thursday on social networks that he was going to return the Crystal Microphone, the trophy that the winners receive each year.
“I will always thank the Eurovision community, the fans who voted, the artists with whom I shared the stage and the experience that shaped me as a person and as an artist. This decision arises from a concern for the values that Eurovision promises, and not from the rejection of those who make it special. Music continues to connect us. This conviction has not changed,” announces Nemo on his Instagram profile.
“While I feel grateful, I don’t believe today that this trophy should be on my shelf. Eurovision stands for unity, inclusion and dignity for all. These are the values that made the festival relevant to me. But the fact that Israel continued to participate during what an independent UN commission deemed to be genocide shows a real conflict between these ideals and the decision made by the EBU,” he continues in his writing.
For Nemo, the competition was used “to soften the image of a State accused of very serious mistakes while the EBU insisted on the fact that Eurovision was not a political event.
The fact that several countries are withdrawing from the festival – there are currently five: Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Ireland – because of this contradiction, “clearly shows that something very serious is happening”, he underlines. It is for this reason that he announces that he is returning his trophy to the main headquarters of the EBU, located in Geneva (Switzerland), where the organization’s General Assembly was held last Thursday, December 4, which concluded Israel’s retention in the festival. “Lead by example,” Nemo asks.
Another winner who has criticized the EBU’s attitude towards Israel is JJ, who won the Crystal Microphone for Austria last May with the song Wasted love. “I hope that next year the festival will take place in Vienna and without Israel,” the musician told the newspaper a few days after triumphing in the competition. These statements sparked heated controversy in his country. Sources close to the singer assured EL PAÍS that ORF, the Austrian public channel and organizer of Eurovision 2026, and his record company have asked JJ to no longer mention Israel in his public statements or to take a position in this conflict.
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