Following Loreen's victory with her song Tattoo in 2023, the 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Malmö, Sweden on 7, 9 and 11 May 2023 with 37 countries taking part (the same number as in the previous edition). This was the seventh time Sweden had hosted the contest (1975, 1985, 1992, 2000, 2013, 2016) and the third time it had been held in Malmö (1992, 2013).

Switzerland claimed its third victory (1956, 1988) at the contest thanks to Nemo, a 24-year-old whirlwind of energy who impressed everyone by performing live a song that speaks of his own personal liberation and code-breaking, combining lyricism with rap and urban rhythms. In addition to the vocal pirouettes demanded by the song, Nemo performed numerous physical acrobatics on a moving platform in the shape of a disc without a second's trembling in his voice. The Code beat the bookmakers' favourite, Croatian singer Baby Lasagna's Rim Tim Tagi Dim. The Croatian rock powerhouse came first in the tele-vote, but Nemo had previously won overwhelming and uncontested support from all the juries, which prevented his victory from slipping away.

The Swedes, as was to be expected, had prepared a spectacular, technologically stunning and visually stunning contest in the year that marked the 50th anniversary of ABBA's victory in Brighton, but a string of blunders turned the most anticipated week for Euro-fans into the most controversial in history.

Media attention on the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was hijacked from the outset by Israel's participation amid international outrage at Israel's indiscriminate killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. and the organisers displayed a total and pathetic inability to control the situation, allowing everything to go down in a chaotic atmosphere. In a more than questionable attempt to be politically correct, the organisers forgot that Eurovision is and has historically been the platform where freedom of expression and European values have been vindicated, but unfortunately this was not the case in Malmö. In many ways what happened there this year was shameful: former Swedish contestant Eric Saade was reprimanded for wearing a Palestinian headscarf on his arm and the video of his performance was removed from the official website. Audience protests were covered up with technology, something that would really be more befitting of a dictatorship. Participating singers such as Ireland's Bambie Thug were silenced and Israeli journalists were allowed to intimidate journalists such as Spain's Juanma Fernandez. Nemo, the first non-binary artist to be declared at Eurovision, and ultimately the star of the night, had to smuggle the flag representing non-binary people into the venue because it was not included in the list of allowed flags. The nonsense of banning certain flags went as far as banning the European Union flag at an event that starts every year with the phrase ‘Good evening Europe’, an unusual and shameful fact that did not go unnoticed in Brussels.

A few hours before the final, disaster loomed. The delegations of Greece, Switzerland and Ireland did not attend the rehearsal while the Frenchman Slimane decided to interrupt his rehearsal to make a speech in favor of peace. In protest against the pressure on journalists, the big-five countries and Sweden did not attend their press conference, while the Italian performer took the microphone in the press room to sing “Imagine”, the pacifist anthem written by John Lennon, in front of the journalists.

As if all this wasn't bad enough, Dutch representative Joost Klein was disqualified from the Eurovision final, just hours before it was due to take place, for allegedly showing an aggressive attitude towards a camerawoman. The protest of the Dutch delegation, which considered the measure totally disproportionate, did not prevent the EBU from upholding this unusual and never before taken decision to disqualify a country from the competition hours before the final. The Netherlands had been one of the favourites and theirs was one of the most popular entries among Euro-fans. At the time of writing this it is still not clear nor has it been made public what really happened.

At the end of his winning performance, Nemo dropped to his knees on stage and slammed the glass microphone to the floor with such force that it shattered to the amazed gaze of millions of viewers around the world. At the press conference following his victory, he admitted that he had broken not only the code but also the trophy that night, and used the circumstance to leave a sharp comment. “The trophy can be fixed,” he said, and then added, “Maybe Eurovision can be fixed too.” The flamboyant winner had put his finger on the sore spot.

We will see if Switzerland, the most neutral country in Europe, manages to settle the discontent and bring everyone together again in peace and harmony at the 69th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place for the third time in the country where the first edition of the contest was held in 1956”.