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Switzerland’s Nemo wins Eurovision 2024
Swiss singer Nemo has won the Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, with their song The Code.
A compelling hybrid of opera and hip-hop, it topped the jury vote, helping the 24-year-old gain an impressive score of 591 points.
The singer becomes the first non-binary artist to win Eurovision. Fittingly, they wrote the song to explain how they came to terms with their identity.
Croatia, which led the public vote, came second with the raucous party anthem Rim Tim Tagi Dim.
This year’s contest was overshadowed by protests over Israel’s participation, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Israel’s entrant, the 20-year-old singer Eden Golan, who received a mixture of boos and cheers as she performed on stage in Malmö, came fifth.
In their victory speech on stage, Nemo said: “I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person in this world.”
They later broke the contest’s infamous crystal microphone trophy, which appeared to fall to the stage as they waved it around in triumph.
Eurovision 2024: The top five contestants
- Switzerland: Nemo – The Code
- Croatia: Baby Lasagna – Rim Tim Tagi Dim
- Ukraine: Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil – Teresa and Maria
- France: Slimane – Mon Amour
- Israel: Eden Golan – Hurricane
Other artists voiced similar sentiments.
Bambie Thug, representing Ireland, screamed “love will triumph hate” as they finished their song, Doomsday Blue; while Portugal’s contestant, Iolanda, told the crowd: “Peace will prevail.”
Two former contestants, Alessandra Mele and Käärijä, pulled out of announcing their countries’ jury scores; Mele cited Israel’s participation as a factor, while Käärijä said “it doesn’t feel right” (to give out points).
Adding to the drama, Dutch contestant Joost Klein was disqualified from the contest on Saturday, after he was accused of making “unlwaful threats” to a female member of the production crew.
The singer was reported to police after the incident occurred backstage on Thursday. Organisers subsequently decided to exclude him from the contest, saying they had a “zero-tolerance policy towards inappropriate behaviour”.
In a statement, Dutch broadcaster Avrotros called the decision “disporportionate” and said Klein had been filmed backstage when he had “repeatedly indicated” that he did not want to be.
Elsewhere, Eurovision was Eurovision.
Finnish artist Windows95Man performed a 1990s house banger with his trousers off, and Croatia’s Baby Lasagna sang about a country boy who sells his cow and moves to the big city.
Bambie Thug gave one of the night’s most memorable performances.
The self-described “goth gremlin goblin witch” appeared on stage in a circle of candles, summoning a demon then dancing ballet with it, before screaming at the top of their lungs.
A hit with viewers, it ultimately took sixth place, with 278 points.
That makes it Ireland’s best result in a quarter of a century.
Abba tribute
The contest was held in Sweden, exactly 50 years after Abba gave the country its first Eurovision win in 1974.
Rumours flew around Malmö that they would appear to mark their golden anniversary – even though the band themselves denied it.
In the end, they only appeared in a short video, in the form of their “abbatars” from the virtual Abba Voyage concerts in London.
The quartet briefly reminisced about the success of their song Waterloo, which was then performed by three other Eurovision winners: Charlotte Perelli (1999), Conchita Wurst (2014), and Carola (1992).
It was a bit of a let-down.
A more dynamic interval performance came from two-time Eurovision winner Loreen, who played her new single Forever in a futuristic, Barbarella-inspired set.
And Blue Swede frontman Björn Skifs opened the show with Hooked On A Feeling, the first ever Swedish song to reach number one in America.
Nemo wowed audiences with their lithe and athletic performance, singing an operatic falsetto while balancing perilously on a spinning turntable.
Their song, The Code, was a deeply personal account of the struggle to accept their non-binary identity.
In the lyrics, they sang: “Somewhere between the zeroes and the ones / That’s where I found my kingdom come.”
The victory represents a big moment for the LGBTQ community which has, for a long time, treated Eurovision as a safe haven.
Last year’s winner Loreen, who handed the crystal trophy to Nemo on Saturday, recently told the BBC how important that support had been to her.
“Eurovision is a community that has an acceptance for diversity [and] different ways of being.
“It’s a very accepting and loving space. And it’s us who are creating it, through creativity.”
Bambie Thug, who is also non-binary, rushed over to Nemo after their victory and handed over a hand-crafted crown, which they wore for their final performance.
The UK improved on its performance last year, when Mae Muller came second-from-last, but was still relegated to the bottom half of the leaderboard.
Singer Olly Alexander, a chart-topping pop star with the band Years and Years, put on a spectacular performance, full of scantily-clad men dancing in a dystopian shower room.
But his live vocals were wobbly, and suffered by comparison to stronger performers from France, Portugal and Greece.
The star laughed off his zero-point score from the public, pretending to embrace television cameras as the results were announced.
(BBC)
The aid group Doctors Without Borders has reported recovering 11 bodies and rescuing dozens of people off the coast of Libya as it criticised the migration policies of the North African country and European countries.
In a statement on Friday, the group, known by its French initials MSF, said its Geo Barents rescue vessel managed to recover the bodies following a search operation lasting more than nine hours after being alerted by German nongovernmental organisation Sea-Watch, which also rescues refugees and migrants.
“As we cannot determine the reason behind this tragedy, we know that people will continue to take dangerous routes in a desperate attempt to reach safety, and Europe must find safe and legal pathways for them,” MSF said in a post on X. “This catastrophe must end!”
Sea-Watch said it is unclear whether the bodies were victims of a previously unknown shipwreck, adding that they tried to contact Libya’s coastguard to go and retrieve the dead, but received no reply.
“The so-called Libyan coastguard – financed by the EU – ignored our call demanding that the bodies be recovered,” the group said.
Thousands of people trying to head from Africa to Europe use Libya as a departing point, with the Italian island of Lampedusa the nearest European destination as they undertake the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean to escape war, poverty and persecution.
Italy, which wants to put a stop to the migration stream, has said Libya and neighbouring Tunisia must do more to stop people from going to sea. It has also clamped down on the operation of the rescue ships, arguing that they encourage people to head to Europe, a charge that is denied by the charities.
Emphasising its policy on the rescue ships, Italy said on Friday that it forced the MSF rescue vessel to take the 165 people that it had saved from boats in the Mediterranean operation to the northern port of Genoa. The port was more than 650 nautical miles (1,200km) from their position and much farther than the more convenient ports in nearby Sicily, significantly delaying assistance to the rescued.
The route in the central Mediterranean is the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world, with the United Nations registering more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the area since 2014.
More than 3,000 refugees and migrants went missing in 2023 while attempting to use the route, according to the International Organization for Migration.
According to Italy’s interior ministry, the number of arrivals in the country has dropped in 2024 to fewer than 21,800 people since the beginning of the year, compared with close to 53,300 in the same period last year.
[Aljazeera]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
Afghanistan boosted their Super Eight chances with yet another dominating win, this time thumping New Zealand by 84 runs in Providence. Having beaten Uganda by 125 runs in their opening match, they are now at the top of Group C with a net run rate of 5.225.
After being sent in, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave Afghanistan a start of 103 in 14.3 overs. It came off the back of the 154 the pair added against Uganda, thus making them the first opening pair to register two successive century stands in the history of the T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan’s was an innings of two halves. They scored 55 for no loss in the first ten overs and 104 for 6 in the last ten, with Gurbaz contributing 80 off 56 balls. New Zealand, who had decided not to play any warm-up games, looked every bit rusty as their fielders dropped catches and missed run-out opportunities.
With the pitch assisting both seamers and spinners, chasing 160 was not going to be easy. But few would have expected New Zealand to collapse in the manner they did.
Fazalhaq Farooqi picked up three wickets in the powerplay and Rashid Khan three just after it. Eventually, both ended with identical figures of 4 for 17 as New Zealand were bowled out for 75 in the 15.2 overs. Glenn Phillips and Matt Henry were the only New Zealand batters to reach the double digits.
Trent Boult found some swing in the opening over but Gurbaz and Ibrahim showed their intent by picking up three fours off Henry from the other end. Both batters had luck on their side, too. Gurbaz got a second life when he skipped down the track to Santner and missed the ball, which went on to brush the leg stump but the bails did not budge. In the following over, Finn Allen dropped Ibrahim off Henry at the deep-square-leg boundary.
That was not all. Gurbaz got another reprieve after being involved in a miscommunication with Ibrahim. Having taken off for a single, Gurbaz had to retrace his steps and would have been run out had Conway not fumbled the throw.
Two balls later, New Zealand finally seemed to have found success when Santner pinged Ibrahim’s pads and umpire Kumar Dharmasena ruled it lbw. But the batter got the decision overturned on review as the ball was heading down the leg side. Immediately after that, Ibrahim hit Santner for an inside-out four as Afghanistan ended the powerplay on 44 for no loss.
New Zealand went against the prevailing wisdom of not bowling an offspinner when two right-hand batters at the crease, and Michael Bracewell repaid that faith by conceding only six off his first two overs.
Lockie Ferguson was even more frugal, going for five in his first two. He could have had Ibrahim off a slower full toss but a leaping Kane Williamson failed to pull off a one-handed stunner at mid-off. That meant while Afghanistan remained unscathed, they had only 55 on the board after ten overs.
Afghanistan had not hit a single six in the first ten overs, but there were five in the next three, including three in one Bracewell over as Gurbaz and Bracewell stepped on the accelerator. The pair took the side past 100 in the 14th over. New Zealand finally broke through when Ibrahim bottom-edged a short ball from Henry onto his stumps, after having been hit on the grille on the previous delivery.
Promoted to No. 3, Azmatullah Omarzai played his part with 22 off 13, which included two sixes in three balls off Henry. Mohammad Nabi fell for a first-ball duck but Gurbaz kept finding the boundary at regular intervals. However, a three-wicket, three-run final over by Boult kept Afghanistan to 159.
Farooqi gave Afghanistan a dream start with the ball. With the very first delivery of the innings, he uprooted Finn Allen’s leg stump as the ball moved in late. In the seamer’s next over, Conway pushed at one that seemed to come slower off the surface and was caught at extra cover.
The decision to give Farooqi a third over in the powerplay brought further rewards. This time, bowling around the wicket to Daryl Mitchell, he got a length delivery to just straighten and take the outside edge. Gurbaz took a regulation catch to complete the dismissal and leave New Zealand 28 for 3.
It could have been worse for New Zealand. In between, Naveen-ul-Haq had rapped Kane Williamson’s front pad after the batter had moved across to play a delivery. Afghanistan sent it upstairs for an lbw review but the umpire’s call saved the New Zealand captain.
Afghanistan did not have to wait too long for Williamson’s wicket. Rashid brought himself on after the powerplay and struck straightaway as Williamson guided one to first slip. But Rashid was just warming up. In his next over, he dismissed Mark Chapman and Bracewell off successive deliveries to leave New Zealand on 43 for 6. Chapman went for a pull and got bowled; Bracewell was late to bring his bat down and was lbw.
Phillips was New Zealand’s last hope. He did hit a couple of boundaries but was soon caught at long-on when he tried to take on Nabi. That ended any hopes of revival New Zealand might have had.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan 159 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 80, Ibrahim Zadran 44, Azmatullah Omarzai 22; Trent Boult 2-22, Matt Henry 2-37, Lockie Fergusoan 1-28) beat New Zealand 75 in 15.2 overs (Glenn Phillips 18; Rashid Khan 4 for 17, Fazalhaq Farooqi 4 for 17, Mohammad Nabi 2-16) by 84 runs
[Cricinfo]
