{"id":186852,"date":"2025-12-11T23:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/186852\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:18:07","slug":"eurovision-winner-nemo-to-return-trophy-in-protest-at-israel-taking-part-in-2026-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/186852\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision winner Nemo to return trophy in protest at Israel taking part in 2026 | Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nemo, the Swiss singer who won the 2024 Eurovision song contest<\/a>, has said they are handing back their trophy in protest over Israel\u2019s participation in next year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, the first non-binary winner of the contest, said on Thursday there was \u201ca clear conflict\u201d between the Eurovision<\/a> ideals of \u201cunity, inclusion and dignity for all\u201d and the decision to allow Israel to compete.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Instagram, they said: \u201cEven though I am immensely grateful for the community around this contest and everything this experience has taught me both as a person and artist, today I no longer feel this trophy belongs on my shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their decision deepens the crisis over Eurovision 2026, which is now facing a boycott from five countries over Israel\u2019s war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Map<\/a><\/p>\n

After the contest\u2019s organising body, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), declined to expel Israel<\/a> over its conduct of the war, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia announced they would boycott the contest. They were joined on Wednesday by Iceland<\/a>, where the board of the national broadcaster R\u00daV voted not to participate.<\/p>\n

In their statement, Nemo said: \u201cThis is not about individuals or artists. The contest was repeatedly used to soften the image of a state accused of severe wrongdoing, all while the EBU insisted Eurovision is \u2018non-political\u2019. And when entire countries withdraw over this contradiction, it should be clear that something is deeply wrong. That\u2019s why I\u2019ve decided that I\u2019m sending my trophy back to the EBU headquarters in Geneva.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli broadcaster Kan has welcomed the decision to keep Israel in the contest, rejecting allegations of political interference. Israel\u2019s president, Isaac Herzog, has said Israel \u201cdeserves to be represented on every stage around the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Israel\u2019s embassy in Norway, which also manages Israel\u2019s relations with Iceland, said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by R\u00daV\u2019s move, which it said went \u201centirely against the spirit of the contest\u201d.<\/p>\n

With six months to go, 34 countries are slated to participate in next year\u2019s edition but some have yet to say whether they will take part.<\/p>\n

The BBC, which runs an internal selection process for the UK\u2019s representative, has said it supports the decisions taken at the EBU summit but has not responded to questions as to whether this means it will participate or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nemo, the Swiss singer who won the 2024 Eurovision song contest, has said they are handing back their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-186852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}