SWITZERLAND 2025

The Swiss song was officially revealed on March 10th with the official video release. A few days earlier, the Swiss delegation announced the act that would be the home performer. Going to Basel is Zoë Më with the song "Voyage" (Journey)

Zoë Alina Kressler is the person behind Zoë Më. She was actually born in Basel but spent most of her life in Fribourg. Here, she studied at La Gustav Academy which is a renowned educational musical establishment. She began writing her own songs at the age of ten and sings and writes in both French and German even though she was not brought up bilingual. Last year, she won the RTS Artiste Radar and SRF 3 Best Talent award and has performed at the world-famous Montreux Jazz Festival. Over the past 7 years she has released twelve singles and two EPs. Her music is best described as Poetic pop and chanson.

The music is minimal and orchestral with sweeping violins, pizzicato embellishments and rumbles of the timpani to add tension and emphasis to the track. Zoë starts singing almost immediately with a long but nicely phrased verse. This and the pre chorus are a little wordy, but delivered in a soft way. This leads straight into the chorus which repeats the title of the song several times and has longer held notes. This structure is run through again but with some changes in the phrasing. After the second chorus there is a slight change of pace with the main line of the chorus being repeated over and over again. The tempo slowly accelerates as Zoë sings over a Tango instrumentation. But just as it starts getting faster the music peters out and Zoë brings the song out of a minor key, back into something more positive and returning to the familiar haunts of the chorus, for the last time, almost acappella. The video sees Zoe in a busy street, sometimes in broad daylight sometimes in darkness. There is a strong motif of flowers throughout the visual; this matches some of the lyrics which compares humans to flowers because "they grow better when the are watered".

In Eurovision terms this song reminds me a lot of Victoria's output in 2020/21 for Bulgaria. However I much prefer this Swiss entry to either of those songs, perhaps the French content makes it sound more palatable or that this style of singing seems more suited, or more culturally resonant, to the French language. The sweeping strings and pure instrumentation makes it stand out compared to the more bombastic and in your face entries this year. Her voice is very small, which lends itself to this style of singing and songwriting but it is intriguing to think how they can replicate an intimate vocal arrangement on a live stage. Her demeanour in the video is also slightly refreshing; she does not go overboard facially or gesturally and you focus on what she is singing and how she is singing.  Part of me hopes that the staging will be simplistic with basic lights and little movement. I almost imagine her alone on stage in a spotlight, adding minimal movement in the Tango part with a brightening up of the stage to the end. I expect French speaking televote to engage with this and a similar affect in the jury vote too, not just the French speakers.

ARTIST - Zoë Më

SONG - Voyage

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Zoë Alina Kressler, Emily Middlemas, Tom Oehler

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

SWITZERLAND 2023

The Swiss song was revealed on March 7th via the premiere of the official music video on you tube. Two weeks earlier, the Swiss broadcaster SRG announced that Remo Ferrer had been internally selected as their entrant. His song is called "Watergun".

Remo Forrer is from Hemberg St Gallen, a mostly German speaking area of  north Switzerland. As a child he played the flute, accordion, piano and took  singing lessons. He then began playing the piano and singing. In 2020 he won The Voice of Switzerland and in April of the same year, he released his winning single Home , which was written by his team coach on the show Noah Veraguth. In July 2022 he appeared on the RTL television show "I can see your voice" and was introduced as an estate agent.

The music video has Remo walking around an abandoned building. The colour palette is muted, foggy with flashes of red. At the end he walks into a wall of sparks and comes out the other end into a green field The song begins with a piano intro which is almost classical in its playing. Remo starts with the first verse which is unexpectedly low in its tone and gets even lower during the pre-chorus. The chorus is a little higher in his register and is repetitive in the lyrics and is accompanied by some strings. The piano introduction concludes the chorus and on the start of verse two there is a slow but prominent beat which vamps up in the pre-chorus. During the chorus it increases more and has almost a  military snare drum feel. The song them momentary drops the beat for for the build up tot he final lines which include the title of the song and repeats the piano played at the very start.

This song isn't breaking any new ground. The most interesting thing about this entry is the distinctive quality of Remo's voice in the verses - his face and his voice don't quite go together! The video is rather basic really especially as the words are rather visceral and the video is rather generic. He could literally be singing about anything if you had it on mute. The song is not particularly spectacular and the video does nothing to inspire one's imagination about a possible stage show. The more I listen, the more I am reminded of Hungary's entry in 2016 "Pioneer" which is similar in tune but not theme. I also don't like the way he over-exaggerates the 'er' sound on the end of the words 'soldier' and 'water' but maybe these may sound different when live.

When I first heard this song I was kind of speechless - and not in a good way. Maybe the writers thought this was allegorical enough, metaphorical enough - seeing war through the lens of a boy play fighting. However, when you have repeated trigger words such as war, real blood, tanks, guns, bullets and body bags the negative connotations these words have instantly taint the song also in a negative light. There have been plenty of Eurovision songs that have contained warlike imagery or been about conflict but all of these have had some tact and empathy, Yes, I understand that this is full of anti-war rhetoric but many people will be watching this show to get away from the woes in the world for a few hours and this 3 minutes basically sucks the life out of that escapism. This may chime strongly with some people, but not me.

ARTIST - Remo Ferrer

SONG - Watergun

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Ashley Hicklin, Pele Loriano, Tom Oehler, Argyle Singh, Tribbs

SWITZERLAND 2021

The Swiss song was released on March 10th with its video being premiered on the official Eurovision youtube account. Last year's representative Gjon's Tears had been reselected internally, and like last year, he co-composed the song. The song he is singing is called "Tout l'univers" (The whole universe)

At the start of he music video, Gjon is lying in a road at the site of a road accident. The camera blurs into another shot of Gjon on the road but in a different position. We then see Gjon behind the wheel of the car driving through space but then the camera starts to shoot through a sunny mountainous twisty roadway. The views get more daring: darting speedily in lots of different directions until the camera is inside the car having the accident from the start of the song. Gjon gets up, runs towards the car and gets someone out - however he is getting himself out of the car - plot twist!

The song starts with sparse piano packing while Gjon sings the verse softly and seems quite melancholy. The chorus starts in a similar vein with the chorus in his trademark falsetto but the piano is accompanied by an ethereal echo/hum in the background which gives it a haunting yet slightly optimistic feel. However the chorus seems to slowly unwinds and falls back into a  amore minor key  but this time with the slight haunt of a beat in the background The second verse again ends with one of his signature high notes but the chorus this time has a tribal syncopated drum beat AND choir.

Although Gjon does not have an extensive chart career he has participated in many singing shows. Aged just 12, Gjon appeared on "Albanian's Got Talent" placing third in the final. It was here his habit of crying after his performances which got him his stage name. In 2012 he then reached the semi-final stage of  "Die grössten Schweizer Talente". Then in 2019 he took part in "The Voice: la plus belle voix" in France where he was mentored by Mika and again got to the semi finals.

This is an immense piece of music. In some ways you can see some of the song writing links to his 2020 entry but you can also see how he has added some extra facets to make the the production really captivating. The joining up of the different parts of the song shouldn't work but they do. The chorus in particular is very catchy and even in French you start learning the words very quickly. Its sparse lyrics and anthemic chanting makes it really stand out. I hope that some of the visual aspects of the video such as the drone shots make it onto the backdrop. I was kind of scared that Gjon would not be able to top last year's masterpiece... how wrong was I...

ARTIST - Gjon's Tears
SONG - Tout l'univers (The whole universe)
WRITING CREDITS - Wouter Hardy, Xavier Michel, Gjon Muharremaj, Nina Sampermans

10/12/11 SWITZERLAND

The Swiss Final was held on December 10th at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney.

The entry was initally started through an internet selection process. Then the 3 language stations of Switzerland chose their entries, with varying processes and methods of choosing, ending up with a 14 entry final.

The process of the final itself was quite strange. The songs were not sung in full. Each entry was performed as a 2 minute mini-song. Apparently this would mean that the three 'judges' would have more time to talk to the the contestants and talk about the songs... However as the vote was 100% televote I still don't know as to how much of a smart move this was (unless the judges used their time to favouritise and critique the acts to influence)  The  jury seemed to make it quite clear which songs they liked and disliked, and were seemingly very rude the very first Eurovision wnner, Lys Assia (who is 87) about her entry and her singing.

After all the acts had sung there was time for televoting. Then the top 3 were revealed...
Chiara Bubey... Ivo... and... Sinplus. And with 17.87% of the total vote, the winner was...

SINPLUS !!!!

I loved this song from the first moment I heard it. Although I thought it was a great song, I had doubts as to how well it would do in a Eurovision contest. I thought it might be a but rocky (and possibly a bit too cool) for a Eurovision selection but I was pleased as punch it won.
There are some concerns about the singers accent, and there have been calls that the song should even be better sung in their native Italian. It would be interesting to hear an Italian version but I thnk there singer's voice is very distinctive and he sings quite well (his live perfomance was very similar to the single recording). The words are quite difficult to pronounce, even if you are English, so I feel that the calls about his accent are a little picky.

Also interesting to note that 2 for the top 3 (Sinplus and Chiara) were part of the Italian selection process, the only TV station that had a live semi-final... all the rest were internal selections.

Anyway, here are there semi-final and final perfomances that saw them get the first full ticket to Baku !

SONG  - Unbreakable

ARTIST - Sinplus

COMPOSERS - Gabriel Broggini, Ivan Broggini

LYRICISTS - Gabriel Broggini, Ivan Broggini

LANGUAGE – English

SWITZERLAND

So the first full entry has now been chosen by Switzerland !

The Swiss Final was held on December 11th at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen and Anna Rossinelli sings “In love for a while”.
A very laid back pop song with lots of memorable parts, including what I am hoping to be this year's must have accessory –the ukulele. The song and the singer are reminiscent of “Bubbly” by Colbie Caillat, as well as that slightly Hawaiian sound of Jack Johnson about it. In that way it already sounds familiar, which can be no bad thing in terms of Eurovision. I am not to sure about the 'na-na-na' bit in the middle, it could do with a bit more ooomph, action or dancing and interaction during that bit. Shame there is no key change either.

But let’s get down to the nitty gritty - would it get out of the semifinal and into the final? Well that is a bit difficult as I have nothing to compare it too, but I have to say this is a good opening gambit by the Swiss and they seem to have come up with something that is at least half decent. My only reservation is that it is sooooo laid back and quiet and does not have that much of a stage presence that it might get lost with more up-tempo and busy tracks around them. But as Tom Dice proved last year sometimes the minimalist approach works.

What do you think?


SINGER - Anna Rossinelli
SONG - In Love For A While
MUSIC -David Klein
WORDS - David Klein