Eurovision has been “used to soften the image of a state accused of severe wrongdoing,” said Swiss artist Nemo.
Last year’s winner of the Eurovision Song Contest says they are returning their trophy to the contest’s governing body in protest of Israel’s inclusion in the 2026 competition, adding to a mounting pressure campaign to exclude the genocidal state.
In posts on Instagram on Thursday, singer and musician Nemo Mettler, known as Nemo, said that although they are “immensely grateful” for the community surrounding the contest, “I no longer feel this trophy belongs on my shelf.”
“Eurovision says it stands for unity, inclusion, and dignity for all,” Nemo wrote in a statement. “But Israel’s continued participation, during what the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry has concluded to be a genocide, shows a clear conflict between those ideals and the decisions made by the EBU,” they went on, referring to the European Broadcasting Union, which operates the annual contest.
In a video in which they read the statement aloud, Nemo picked up the trophy — a statue of a microphone with Eurovision’s logo emblazoned on the front — and placed it in a box. They said they are mailing it back to Geneva, where EBU is headquartered.
Nemo won Eurovision in 2024 as a representative of Switzerland. They were the first nonbinary person to ever win the contest.
In their statement, Nemo said that Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision has been “repeatedly used to soften the image of a state accused of severe wrongdoing.”
This lines up with statements from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel, known as PACBI, which pushes for the cultural and academic boycott of Israel as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
When the EBU announced that Israel would be included in the contest last week, PACBI condemned the decision, saying that the contest organizers were “helping to enable and whitewash Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” PACBI called on countries, contestants, and presenters to withdraw from the contest.
There is growing pressure on the EBU to drop Israel from the contest. On Wednesday, Iceland’s public broadcaster RÚV said the country would not participate in the contest because of Israel’s inclusion.
“It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU’s decision last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RUV’s participation,” said the broadcaster’s director general, Stefan Eiriksson.
Iceland is the fifth country to announce that it is boycotting the contest next year. Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Spain have also said that they are withdrawing over the EBU’s decision to allow Israel to compete. Seventeen Portuguese artists participating in a contest to be the next artist to represent the country have also signed a statement saying they would boycott Eurovision if chosen, European outlets report.
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