Eurovision champion Nemo returns winner’s trophy to protest Israel’s inclusion

GENEVA — Swiss singer Nemo, who won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, said Thursday they will return the winner’s trophy because Israel is being allowed to compete in the politically troubled pop music competition.

In an Instagram video, Nemo held the microphone-shaped glass ornament and said, “Today I no longer feel like this trophy belongs on my shelf.”

“Eurovision says it stands for unity, for inclusion and dignity for all people,” Nemo said, asserting that Israel’s participation, given its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza, shows those ideals are at odds with organizers’ decisions.

The nonbinary singer won the contest in May 2024 with the pop-operatic ode “The Code.”

Five countries have announced they will boycott the 2026 contest after organizers declined to expel Israel: Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland, which announced its withdrawal on Wednesday.

“When entire countries withdraw, it should be clear that something is deeply wrong,” Nemo said before placing the trophy in a box they said would be sent to the Geneva headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision.

Nemo, ganador del Festival de #Eurovisión 2024, devuelve el trofeo a la UER en protesta por la participación de Israel pic.twitter.com/fLgfRmCV9b

— Tweets de tele (@teletuits) December 11, 2025

Next year’s Eurovision is scheduled to take place in Vienna in May, after Austrian singer JJ won the 2025 contest in Basel, Switzerland. By Eurovision tradition, the winning country hosts the following year. Switzerland is currently still set to participate in the 2026 contest.

The walkouts cast a cloud over the future of what’s meant to be a feel-good cultural party marked by friendly rivalry and disco beats.

The contest, which turns 70 in 2026, strives to put pop before politics, but has repeatedly been embroiled in world events. Russia was expelled in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It has been roiled by the war in Gaza for the past two years, stirring protests outside the venues and forcing organizers to clamp down on political flag-waving.

The withdrawals from the coming contest came in the wake of a decision last week by the European Broadcasting Union allowing Israel to take part.

Opponents of Israel’s participation cite the war in Gaza that was triggered on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led an invasion of southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in 251 hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 70,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during and immediately after the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.

A number of experts, including those commissioned by a UN body cited by Nemo, have claimed that Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, a claim Israel and others have vigorously denied.

The UN-commissioned report was immediately rejected by Israel as “distorted and false,” with Jerusalem noting its authors’ history of vehemently anti-Israeli positions.

The UN itself has not labeled the situation in Gaza a genocide, although the body’s aid chief urged world leaders in May to “act decisively to prevent genocide,” while its rights chief in September denounced Israel’s “genocidal rhetoric.”

A US-brokered ceasefire halted the war in October this year, though sporadic clashes have continued as Gaza remains divided between Israel and Hamas-held areas.