Switzerland’s tops and flops at the Eurovision Song Contest
Published: Thursday, Apr 25th 2024, 12:20
Updated At: Friday, Apr 26th 2024, 01:59
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Nemo is the favorite for the 68th Eurovision Song Contest in May. A victory seems possible. Switzerland has won the contest twice, but has often not even made it to the final. The tops and flops among the Swiss ESC entries.
"The Code" by Nemo is the favorite to win the 68th Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Malmö - at least according to the betting odds.
The Swiss singer Lys Assia (1924-2018) won the first ESC, which took place in Lugano in 1956, with "Refrain". Back then, however, the competition was much smaller with seven countries taking part. Assia is the only Swiss woman to win the Grand Prix to date.
Assia wanted to compete again for Switzerland at the 57th edition of the ESC in 2012, but did not make it through the preselection. The Sinplus brothers duo represented Switzerland in Baku instead, but missed out on a place in the final.
Céline Dion secured the second Swiss victory with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" in 1988, beating England by one point at the 33rd Concours in Dublin. The lyrics to the song were written by the grand dame of Swiss folk music Nella Martinetti.
Dry spell in the 2010s
While things went well with Luca Hänni (4th place) and Gjon's Tears (3rd place) in 2019 and 2021, Switzerland had a dry spell in previous years. Between 2007 and 2018, only Anna Rossinelli from Basel in 2011 and Sebalter from Ticino in 2014 made it to the final. She finished 25th, he 13th.
In 2007, Eurodance icon DJ Bobo missed out on a place in the final with "Vampires Are Alive" - despite being the favorite. He was followed by Paolo Meneguzzi from Ticino in 2008, the Basel rock band Lovebugs in 2009 and the chansonnier Michael von der Heide in 2010 - none of them made it to the final. "The curse remains unbroken", wrote the Keystone-SDA news agency after the chansonnier's elimination.
Nobody broke the curse in the following years either - until 2019. The Swiss group Peter, Sue & Marc even entered the race for the music prize four times, reaching fourth place in 1976 and 1981. In 1971 and 1979, they made it to the final, but not to the top places.
Switzerland hit rock bottom in 2004, when Musicstar contestant Piero Esteriore competed with the Musicstars in Istanbul, with the song "Celebrate" finishing in last place.
©Keystone/SDA
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