Eurovision Song Contest: Switzerland wins an edition full of controversy

The most eventful edition of the Eurovision Song Contest ever has a winner. After all the points were calculated, Switzerland emerged as the winner. Singer Nemo received the trophy for his song code. Croatia and Ukraine completed the podium.

In the run-up to the Eurovision Song Contest, there was a huge buzz for several months about Israel's participation due to ongoing bombings and attacks in the Gaza Strip. Another controversy arose this week when the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided to disqualify Dutch singer Joost Klein as a result of an “incident with a photographer.” All of this created a tense atmosphere at the start of the grand final on Saturday night.

From Sweden to Austria

After the flag display, it was up to twins Markus and Martinus for Sweden to open the final. After them, the first event immediately followed with Ukraine. It was not long until it was Israel's controversial turn. Despite the filters and fake applause, boos could still be heard from viewers at home.

Charming Bambi Thug provided Ireland's next highlight with an absolutely stunning act. Windows95man from Finland gave one of the most memorable performances of the evening just after the halfway point, and then it was time for the big guns. Nemo came in 21st place for Switzerland and after only two songs Baby Lasagna became Croatia's favorite. We are sadly done with it my love By the French singer Slimane and the party song We will rave From Austria's Kalin.

Scoring

After an ode to ABBA and a bizarre performance from the neutral Lauren, it was time to record. Traditionally, it started with the jury's points. They convincingly chose Switzerland, which scored at least 22 times the maximum of 12 points. France and Croatia followed at a great distance.

However, there were still a lot of things possible with the points obtained from the TV broadcast. It soon became clear that many countries had significantly low scores, which meant that the best players would receive high scores. As expected, Israel received a very high score, following widespread calls from Israeli organizations everywhere to vote for statehood. The country took the lead for a while. Soon after, she had to give up this leadership position to Ukraine, after which Croatia took over as well. At that moment, Switzerland only had to get the points, so it eventually became a battle between the top favourites.

Ultimately, Switzerland won this battle relatively comfortably, winning the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time. Nemo was allowed to the podium to receive the trophy – which was soon destroyed – from outgoing winner Lauren. Then Nemo performed his victory again code.