SWITZERLAND 2024

The Swiss song and act was revealed on February 29th - with the première of the song on the Eurovision Song Contest youtube channel. Very little information was known about the song presentation apart from some media leaks which were not substantiated by the broadcaster. The Swiss song for Malmö is "The Code" by Nemo.

Nemo Mettler, from Biel in Switzerland, is an all round performer. Their music includes rapping and singing as well as being able to play the drums, violin and piano. Nemo's start in the music industry came at aged 16 with the release of the “Momänt-Kids” EP. This was followed up by another EP entitled “Fundbüro” the following year. As you can see, much of their early work was in the German language as well as self-written songs in the localised dialect of their home canton. Their later work was mostly in English. They received national acclaim in 2018 when they won 4 categories in the Swiss Music Awards 2018 including Best New Act and Best Hit for the song "Du". In 2021 Nemo was placed 5th on Masked Singer Switzerland where they were unmasked as Panda.

On paper, this song seems rather formulaic however on listening to it there is much more than meets the eye. The song starts rather small and with Nemo's vocal rather high in the register, almost spoken and with a very familiar tune. There is then a rather breathy and tension filled pre-chorus which runs leads into a rather timid chorus. Suddenly, verse 2 kicks in which is a very fast rapped verse. The pre-chorus here is much more angry and leads into a much more energetic version of the chorus with a stronger vocal. For the bridge the song goes back to a smaller vocal although the background music seems to do the opposite and build up to a slightly techno operatic section before the last chorus. Nemo really shows off their versatility here as they are able to tackle a wide range of vocal styles in a very short amount of time.

The video has a train theme, which could be replicated with video walls and/or props on the stage. I think this is a clever technique for the video as is really does help compartmentalise the different parts;  physically opening and closing doors to different sections of the song. Nemo wears a lot of different outfits and by the end the clothes and the lighting fluctuates between pinks and blues and purples. Obviously, this is a video and one cannot gain any idea how Nemo will sing this or how good they are at singing it. They obviously have no barriers to the style they sing in and feel comfortable doing so. However, changing genre within seconds and back on stage could prove tricky. Maybe the delegation has ideas for the amount of vocals on the backing track OR how people will be used on stage (singers or dancers) to give the song that power and depth it needs. This track is full of different bits and although this reeks of ambition and creativity it creates a real lack of flow in the song. Even when the chorus is repeated it sounds different every time and one might not even totally realise parts are the same. I feel like this song is trying very hard to be everything to everybody and the recorded version lacks warmth. However in person and on stage, this may well be different.

ARTIST - Nemo

SONG - The Code

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Benjamin Alasu, Linda Dale, Nemo Mettler, Lasse Midtsian Nymann