A non-binary person conqueringEurovision 2024. Nemo triumphed in the most controversial edition of the European competition ever with “The Code”, a song that breaks the code from multiple points of view.
The musical one, with a mix of genres and vocal styles outside the usual pop canons, at the service of a technically arduous performance with impeccable performance.
But above all of social conventions, of the world still strongly divided between black and white, male and female. Of society struggling to take into consideration the colorful variables in between. Minorities that in recent years are increasingly claiming their position in the world with courage.
Nemo and the message of non-binaryity at Eurovision
24 years old, from Biel, in the canton of the Swiss capital Bern, Nemo Mettler announced her non-binary status last November by debuting “This Body,” a song about not feeling comfortable in your body and dealing with the internalized shame of gender identity.
I don’t identify as a man or a woman. I’m simply Nemo. I like to think of the genre as a galaxy, imagining myself as a little star floating somewhere. That’s where I feel most like myself.
As I grew into adulthood, I began to sense that something about me was different. The way most people perceived me was not my true self.
Thanks to the voices and stories of other genderqueer people, I began to put the pieces of my puzzle together, realizing that there is a place for me beyond the binary. This has been the most liberating experience of my life.
And the artist also makes an invitation to reevaluate language to make it more inclusive, a challenge especially for languages characterized by a deep-rooted grammatical binary:
My pronouns are they/them (in English) and I am equally comfortable using them Nemo without any pronouns, especially in German. I know it may be challenging at first, but your willingness to learn and your acceptance of my true self means so much more to me than not doing things right from the start.
Nemo ends up at the European competition held in Malmö by chance:
Last June I attended a songwriting session specifically for Eurovision thinking about writing songs for other artists as a songwriter. Out of nowhere the team asked me “Do you imagine going to Eurovision?”. I said I’d never thought about it but I would try and I ended up writing one of the most special and creative songs I’ve ever put my hand to.
Thus “The Code” was born and becomes the emblem of a whirlwind and arduous personal journey, dotted with ups and downs, visually represented to perfection by the rotating platform on which the artist demonstrated great talent:
This story is my truth
I went to hell and back
To find myself back on track
I broke the code.
Nemo he is not an emergent. He has four EPs under his belt and several successful singles in his homeland, with the peak being the German-Swiss song “Du”, fourth place in the Swiss charts in 2017 and winner of the “Best National Song” award at the Swiss Music Awards of the following year, an event in which the artist also won the “Best Swiss artist”, “Best male artist”, “Best live performance” and “Best emerging artist” awards.
A career that is based on a solid technical background. Nemo he is a multi-instrumentalist, in fact he plays violin, piano and drum and from the age of 9 he studied opera singing, and then approached rap. In 2012 he also participated in the second edition of the Swiss version of The Masked Singer.
