THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS - Eurovision Song Contest 2025: Nemo calls for Israel's exclusion

• Last year's Swiss winner, Nemo, spoke out on Friday (May 9) in favor of excluding Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. Israel's actions are fundamentally contrary to the values ​​the Eurovision Song Contest claims to uphold, Nemo told the HuffPost portal.
• This year's Eurovision Song Contest will open on May 11 at 2 p.m. with an official ceremony at Basel City Hall. After a welcoming speech to the participants, the traditional turquoise carpet will be rolled out. This will lead along a 1.3-kilometer route to the Basel Exhibition Center, a venue for the ESC supporting program.
• Zoë Më represents Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest. With "Voyage," the singer presents a poetic pop ballad that encourages us to counter hate with love. As last year's winner, Switzerland automatically advances to the final. Read the report
• Thanks to Nemo's victory at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, Switzerland will host the 69th Eurovision Song Contest . The two semifinals and the final on May 17 will be held in Basel. 37 countries are participating.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place in Basel from May 11 to 17. Basel prevailed over Geneva, Bern, and Zurich in the selection process of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG), which organizes the ESC. The venue is Basel's St. Jakobshalle. The semifinals will take place there on May 13 and 15, and the grand final on May 17, both starting at 9 p.m.

In addition, a large public viewing event with live concerts will be organized in Basel's St. Jakob Park, the football stadium next door. Basel is also planning an extensive supporting program. There will be stages and food stands throughout the city. Organizers have announced a "Eurovision Boulevard" stretching between the Basel SBB and Basel Badischer Bahnhof train stations, connecting venues such as the exhibition center and Barfüsserplatz. Bars and restaurants have been granted permission to operate free nights, meaning they can serve guests throughout the day.

Tickets for the shows at the St. Jakobshalle have already been allocated. Most tickets for the large public viewing at Basel's 36,000-seat football stadium have also already been sold. The last remaining tickets can be obtained via Ticketcorner. According to the Eurovision Song Contest organizers, people from a total of 83 countries have purchased tickets. 56 percent of the tickets were purchased by Swiss citizens.

Additional public viewings will take place in Basel and other Swiss cities. Events with more than 300 spectators must be registered in advance with SRG. According to the organizers' overview, venues in Basel, Aarau, Lucerne, and Schaffhausen have registered so far . The restaurant industry is also being encouraged to broadcast the event in bars and restaurants, especially in Basel.

37 countries have confirmed their participation, from Albania to Cyprus . Bookmakers are tipping Sweden as the favorite to win. The country will be competing with the Finnish comedy group Kaj and the sauna song "Bara bada bastu." Austrian countertenor JJ follows in second place – but with some distance. Switzerland and Germany are predicted to have only a slim chance of winning.

The entry by Malta's candidate, Miriana Conte, caused a stir. She originally planned to compete with the song "Kant." The word means "song" in Maltese. However, in English, the word sounds like "cunt," a vulgar term for the female genital organ. According to media reports, the BBC has filed a complaint about this. Malta's Minister of Culture, Owen Bonnici, described the incident as "censorship of art." Malta has now changed the lyrics and removed the word entirely. The new title is "Serving."

Estonia's entry also caused quite a stir in the run-up to the competition, particularly in Italy. The Italian ruling party Lega even called for the exclusion of Estonian rapper Tommy Cash, claiming his song "Espresso Macchiato" perpetuated stereotypes about Italy.

Israel is also in the spotlight again this year. Singer Yuval Raphael, who survived the attack by the Islamist Hamas on October 7, 2023, is representing the country. In 2024, Israel's candidate Eden Golan had to rework her song several times because the Eurovision Song Contest organizers deemed initial versions too political. "October Rain" became "Hurricane." The song Raphael will perform is "New Day Will Rise."

Last year's Swiss winner, Nemo, spoke out on Friday (May 9) in favor of excluding Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest. Nemo told the HuffPost portal: "Personally, I think it makes no sense for Israel to participate in this Eurovision Song Contest. The Eurovision Song Contest in general at the moment." He argued that Israel's actions fundamentally contradict the values ​​the Eurovision Song Contest claims to uphold, namely "peace, solidarity, and respect for human rights."

After the musical explosion that Nemo brought to the stage at the 2024 victory, SRG has opted for a quieter, more soulful performance this year. With "Voyage," Zoë Më presents a poetic pop ballad. The French-language piece celebrates the beauty of the moment, of life, and of love.

Pop singer Zoë Më, 24, is known for her combination of German and French lyrics. She was born in Basel, grew up in Germany, and spent most of her life in the canton of Fribourg, where she still lives today.

Zoë Më will perform in the first semifinal – but out of competition. As host country, Switzerland automatically advances to the final.

Siblings Abor & Tynna from Vienna are competing for Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest. The Austrian duo won the preliminary round with their song "Baller." "Baller" is a mix of pop, hip-hop, and electronic music, with lyrics largely in German. Tynna sings, and her brother Abor plays the cello.

Abor & Tynna come from a musical family in Vienna. Their father, a cellist with the Vienna Philharmonic, influenced their careers, and they began playing classical instruments at an early age. They are automatically in the Eurovision Song Contest final, as Germany is one of the five largest sponsors of the event.

The SRG relies on a female trio: Michelle Hunziker, Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer are the presenters of the main events.

Hunziker, 48, was considered the ideal choice early on: She speaks fluent German, Italian, and French, has hosted major shows like "Wetten, dass . . .?", and has proven herself countless times on major international stages. Studer, 56, is also an obvious choice: She participated in the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland in 1991 and has hosted and commentated on several live shows, including Eurovision preliminary rounds.

Alongside the two accomplished presenters, cabaret artist Hazel Brugger is the big, refreshing surprise. She grew up near Zurich and became known as a slam poet and columnist. She now lives in Germany and is expected to deliver the cheeky punchlines at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Presenter Sven Epiney, who would also have loved to be on the big stage, will have to settle for hosting the large public viewing at the Basel football stadium. He will be hosting the events there alongside RTS presenter Mélanie Freymond.

According to its own description, the ESC stands for dialogue, unity, and the unifying power of music. The event aims to be neutral. Yet politics is playing an increasingly large role. While Switzerland is still called upon to host the most colorful and glittering festival possible, it is even more responsible for ensuring the most orderly and safe event possible in a particularly polarized time. And that is a major challenge.

Last year, the lines of conflict were obvious. Demonstrations against Israel's participation took place outside the concert hall, artists clashed at media conferences on political issues, and Nemo stood onstage with a rainbow flag during the final performance of the winning song. This year, the show is once again threatened by wars and sociopolitical controversies. Several pro-Palestinian rallies have been announced.

A large portion of the Swiss population is skeptical about the event, as a representative survey conducted by the company Sotomo in the summer of 2024 showed. In the host city of Basel, a referendum was held against the city's ESC budget, but it failed. 66.6 percent of voters voted in favor of the ESC.

Only four countries have achieved two consecutive victories: Spain (1968 and 1969), Luxembourg (1972 and 1973), Israel (1978 and 1979), and Ireland, which even won three times in a row (1992 to 1994). Since then, the judging system has been reformed several times, and the interplay between jury and audience voting has been refined. This has made it even more unlikely for a country to win twice in a row.

Switzerland ranks well among European countries, with a total of three wins. In addition to Nemo, Céline Dion (1988) and Swiss pop singer Lys Assia (1956) have won for Switzerland. Ireland and Sweden have the most first-place finishes, with seven each. Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg have each won five times. Germany has taken first place twice: in 1982 with Nicole and in 2010 with Lena Meyer-Landrut.

A total of 26 places are up for grabs in the final. Six participants have already been confirmed: The five largest donors, the so-called "Big Five," do not need to qualify. These are Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, and Spain. Switzerland, last year's winner, also automatically advances to the final.

The remaining 31 candidates will compete for one of the remaining 20 spots in the two semifinals. In the preliminary rounds, the audience decides which countries advance to the final. Only viewers from the countries participating in the respective semifinals are allowed to vote.

Votes can be cast by phone, text message, or app . Since 2023, people from countries not participating in the Eurovision Song Contest can also participate in all voting events via app or the Eurovision Song Contest website. These votes are summarized in the "Rest of the World" category.

In the final, viewers and juries jointly decide the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. The juries are appointed by all participating countries. They each consist of five members. The points a country receives are divided equally between the viewers' votes and the expert juries' points.

Each country can award a maximum of 24 points per contestant: 12 from the jury and 12 from the audience. Voters can only vote for other countries, not for their own contestant. The country with the most points wins. If two countries have exactly the same number of points, the audience vote is given greater weight.

The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest will be remembered primarily for political dissonance rather than musical harmony. In addition to the protests against Israel's participation, the disqualification of Dutch singer Joost Klein also resonates. He was excluded from the competition after an altercation with a production employee. Klein was accused of hitting the camerawoman. He claimed the woman filmed him despite his protests. The criminal proceedings were dropped.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has introduced a code of conduct that participants must agree to. It is intended to reduce the pressure on artists. Rehearsals will now be held behind closed doors, and participants will be granted a camera-free zone backstage. In return, the new code of conduct explicitly obliges them to refrain from making political statements. Violations of the code can result in warnings or access restrictions.

For example, artists are only allowed to carry their national flag in official areas – and not flags containing political messages. A performance like Nemo's last year, when he displayed the non-binary flag, is no longer permitted this year. Fans, however, are permitted to carry any flag that does not violate Swiss law.

The ESC is funded in part by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Swiss organizer SRG (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation), and the host city of Basel. The ESC budget is broken down as follows: The EBU provides the host country with 6.2 million euros, which is the total of the contributions that the participating countries must pay. Last autumn, the Basel Grand Council approved government expenditures of more than 37 million francs. This will finance the infrastructure in the St. Jakobs Hall, supporting events in the city, and security measures. According to Basel's government president Conradin Cramer, the latter alone accounts for 9 million francs. The SRG (Swiss Broadcasting Corporation) has not yet provided a precise cost breakdown. According to SRF, production has cost between 10 and 70 million francs in recent years, although part of the costs can be covered by sponsorship.

The competition can also be economically beneficial for the city hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, as a study by the University of Liverpool has shown. It examined the costs and profits of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool. Revenues of around CHF 62 million flowed into the catering, hotel, retail, and public transport sectors. The costs for the city, the state, and the BBC amounted to approximately CHF 40 million. Nevertheless, it is doubtful that the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG) or Basel will benefit significantly financially. The EBU is certain to profit from this. It receives donations from international sponsors and controls the television rights.