Switzerland's Nemo wins Eurovision 2024, Finland 19th

Switzerland won the 68th Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'The Code' performed by Nemo.

The final of the contest was held in Malmö, Sweden on Saturday night amidst demonstration by several thousands of people outside of the venue and in the city centre protesting against participation of Israel in the event.

The Code won with a points tally of 591.

Finnish contestant Windows95man (Teemu Keisteri, and guest vocalist Henri Piispanen) placed 19^th with total 38 points.

Croatia became runner-up with the song Rim Tim Tagi Dim by Baby Lasagna with 547 points followed by Ukraine. Ukrainian singers alyona alyona & Jerry Heil earned 453 points with their song Teresa & Maria.

Born in 1999 in Biel, a small bilingual town in Switzerland, Nemo has been playing the violin, piano and drums since they were a small child.

In 2016, Nemo became famous overnight through an appearance at SRF Virus (#Cypher), which went viral on social media.

Afterwards they released two EPs - through which 7 songs made it directly onto the official Swiss Singles Chart.

2020 marked the beginning of a period of change for Nemo, when they started writing and producing for other artists, and also started releasing songs in English.

In their music, Nemo deals with themes such as gender identity, mental health and finding one‘s place in this world.

Meanwhile, several thousands of people staged demonstration in central Malmo protesting against the participation of Israel in the contest.

They chanted slogan "Eurovision united by genocide" - a twist on the Eurovision's official slogan "United by music".

Several hundreds of protesters also gathered outside the venue with the slogan "Eurovision, you cannot hide that you are supporting genocide."

Holding the host of the event European Broadcasting Union (EBU) responsible for playing double standards as the EBU banned Russia from Eurovision in 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine but allowed Israel despite the massive killings in Palestine.

Police, however, dispersed the protesters from the adjacent areas of the programme.

Earlier, the organiser disqualified Joost Klein, the Netherlands' delegate from the final after a backstage incident.

The role of EBU to allow Israel in the contest was also criticized and protested in Finland.

“The EBU HQ leaders just killed the more than 70-year-old singing competition. Much more shocking is that Israel just killed over 14,000 children,” Parliamentary group leader of opposition Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance) Jussi Saramo wrote in a post in his social media platform X early Sunday after the event.

Earlier on Saturday morning dozens of protesters gathered at the premises of national broadcaster Yle in Pasila, Helsinki demanding withdrawal of Yle from the contest protesting Israeli participation.

Finnish singer Käärijä, who became runner-up in last year’s Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday refused to announce Finland’s points at this year´s Eurovision final.

Earlier on May 6, Miikka Koivisto, Music Editor of the national broadcasting corporation Yle announced his resignation protesting against the partnership of the corporation with European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is organizing the Eurovision despite participation of Israel in the contest.

On May 6 several hundreds of musicians and music industry professionals reiterated their call for boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) protesting against the participation of Israel in the contest.

On January 11, Finnish rapper Jesse Markin, one of the seven singers, who was vying to represent Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest announced to boycott the contest, if Israel is allowed to participate.