2024 Eurovision Champ Nemo Returns Prize In Protest of Israel’s 2026 Inclusion: ‘I No Longer Feel This Trophy Belongs on My Shelf’

Last year’s Eurovision Song Contest winner, Swiss singer Nemo, announced on Thursday (Dec. 11) that they will return the winner’s trophy in protest of Israel being allowed to compete in the 2026 event. In an Instagram post announcing their decision, the global singing competition’s first openly non-binary champ — who won the contest in May 2024 with their operatic pop anthem “The Code” — wrote that they will always be grateful for the experience, but that they must send their trophy back in protest.

“Last year I won Eurovision and with it I was awarded the trophy,” Nemo said in a video in which they held up the prize, an oversized glass microphone. “And even though I’m immensely grateful for the community around this contest and everything this experience has taught me both as a person and an artist, today I no longer feel this trophy belongs on my shelf.”

Nemo continued, “Eurovision says it stands for unity, inclusion, and dignity for all. Those values made this contest meaningful to me. 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 (European Broadcasting Union).”

The singer’s action came after five other countries have announced they will boycott next year’s contest after a Dec. 4 vote in which the governing EBU declined to expel Israel over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain said they will sit out the 2026 contest, which is slated to take place in Vienna in May following Austrian singer JJ’s win for the song “Wasted Love”; the winning country traditionally hosts the following year’s event.

In addition, 11 of the 16 entrants from Portugal’s song selection contest, Festival da Canção, have said they will refuse to perform if they win, also out of protest of Israel’s inclusion.

Nemo said their decision was not about individuals or artists, but about what they said was the contest repeatedly being used to “soften the image of a state accused of severe wrongdoing, all while the EBU insisted Eurovision is ‘non-political.’” Eurovision has long stated that it is a non-political event and has asked the participating broadcasters and performers to refrain from making political statements in their songs and selections, though politics have crept in numerous times over the years.

Following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the country was banned from that year’s competition. The calls for a ban on Israel have grown louder over the past two year due to the nation’s devastating war against Hamas in Gaza, which decimated the territory and led to what officials described as a famine, with an independent United Nations inquiry calling the military action a genocide, a claim Israel has repeatedly denied.

Pointing to the handful of nations withdrawing, Nemo suggested that when that happens, “it should be clear that something is deeply wrong. That’s why I’ve decided that I’m sending my trophy back to the EBU headquarters in Geneva. With gratitude and a clear message: Live what you claim. If the values we celebrate onstage aren’t lived offstage, then even the most beautiful songs lose their meaning. I’m waiting for the moment those words and actions align. Until then, this trophy is yours.”

In the comments on the post, Nemo added that they will always be grateful to the Eurovision community, the fans who voted and the artist they shared the stage with in 2024, and the experience that “shaped me as a person and musician. This decision comes from care for the values Eurovision promises, not from rejection of the people who make it special. Music still connects us. That belief hasn’t changed.”

Before Nemo’s post, Eurovision director Martin Green posted an open letter to the contest’s fans explaining the decision to include Israel next year. “I know that many of you will be feeling strong emotions at this time. I certainly am, which is why I wanted to write directly to you,” Green wrote. “I also know you feel strongly about events in the Middle East and how those realities connect to the Eurovision Song Contest. No one can fail to be moved by what we have seen in the region in the past few years. Some of you have written to us, spoken out, or expressed anger and pain at what they see as silence in the face of tragedy. I want to say that we hear you. We understand why you feel so strongly and that we care too.”

Green noted that the 70-year-old contest was born in a “divided and fractured Europe — as a symbol of unity, peace, and hope through music. Those foundations have not changed and neither has the Contest’s purpose. This Contest has survived and thrived despite wars, political upheaval, and shifting borders. Through it all, it has remained a place where people from all corners of Europe, and now the world, can come together to celebrate creativity and connection despite, and because of, the world around us.”

Given the concerns, Green said Eurovision will ensure that all participating broadcasters will respect the rules of the competition and if they don’t, “you have a personal pledge from me, we will not tolerate it and call it out.”

Nemo’s action and the withdrawals of the five countries has cast a cloud over what is typically a joyous, silly and outrageous song competition beloved for its often schmaltzy ballads, bonkers disco bangers and a massive global audience eager to see their nation hoist the cup. In addition to casting out Russian in 2022, Israel’s participation over the past two years has stirred up protests and led to calls for the country’s 2025 entry, singer Yuval Raphael, to be booted from the competition.

The survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023 Nova Festival massacre in Israel — which was part of a surprise attack by Hamas raiders in which more than 1,200 Israelis were murdered and 250 were kidnapped — came in second place this year with her anthem “New Day Will Rise.”