Nemo from Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) with the song “The Code”. Nemo got the most points with a total of 591. Germany landed with the singer Isaak in 12th place out of 25 finalists on Sunday night. The musician Baby Lasagna from Croatia came second with the song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”, followed by Ukraine, France and Israel.
After many disastrous placings at the Eurovision Song Contest in recent years, Germany was even in tenth place according to the jury’s evaluation. Isaak from East Westphalia received points from the juries from 23 countries. There were even ten points from Israel. The spectators then gave them 18 points. This placed Germany in 12th place.
Isaak rocked the ESC stage for Germany with start number three and his song “Always on the Run”. He belted out the power ballad without making a mistake. Because the ESC rules do not allow strong expressions, Isaak left out the word “shit” in a line of text. At the beginning he warmed himself by a burning barrel. There were also a lot of fire effects, but otherwise there was no choreography.
After this performance with many flames, Germany has a bad CO2 balance and has to have a car-free Sunday the following day, joked ARD commentator Thorsten Schorn during the live broadcast from Malmö. Schorn succeeded Peter Urban, who had guided the German audience through the ESC for 25 years.
Protests and whistles at Israel’s performance
This time, the world‘s largest music competition was overshadowed by protests against Israel’s participation. Once again, thousands of people gathered in the southern Swedish city for a rally against Israel’s actions in the Gaza war and the acceptance of Israel’s contribution to the ESC.
As soon as the Israeli singer Eden Golan (20) came on stage at the nations’ entry, whistles could be heard in the hall. While performing her song “Hurricane,” Golan had to endure numerous whistles and loud boos. Unrest briefly gripped the hall.
The singer had already experienced such protest reactions against Israel from viewers at the semi-final. At both performances, however, the audience’s cheers clearly predominated.
At the beginning of the final there was also a symbolic deviation from the show on stage: Ireland’s act Bambie Thug did not wear the country’s flag as a cape as usual, but as a dress on her body. Bambie Thug had originally wanted to wear calls for a ceasefire painted on his own body as a protest against Israel’s policies, but rejected this under pressure from the organizers.
At the first demonstrations in the evening, the police described the mood among the 6,000 to 8,000 participants as “peaceful” – but the emergency services then had to take stronger action at the much smaller gathering in front of the hall. Several people were arrested outside for causing a disturbance. Police also led climate activist Greta Thunberg (21), whose mother came 21st for Sweden at the ESC in 2009, with other demonstrators from the square in front of the arena after the mood there had heated up.
Dutchman Joost Klein disqualified before the final
Immediately before the final it was announced that the Dutch candidate Joost Klein had been excluded from the competition. According to the Dutch television station Avrotros, the background was an aggressive gesture by Klein towards a camerawoman who had filmed him. According to the information, he did not touch the woman.
What exactly happened in the altercation is still unclear. The police have started an investigation. The Netherlands’ starting position, number 5, will now remain empty in the final. This meant that only 25 countries were in the ESC final.