After ESC victory
Nemo destroys the trophy
Nemo with the ESC trophy after winning in Malmö.
© ANTTI AIMO-KOIVISTO/LEHTIKUVA/ddp/Sipa USA
After the ESC victory, Nemo celebrated with the trophy – a little too exuberantly, as it became clear afterwards.
Nemo, 24, has the winner’s trophy ESC broken – just a few minutes after the Swiss star won the music competition with 591 points in the final. The song “The Code” received 365 points from the juries and 226 from the audience.
Cup falls apart on stage
After Nemo accepted the trophy from the Swedish ESC 2023 winner Loreen, 40, there was one final appearance on the stage in Malmö, with Nemo, sitting on the floor, passionately waving the trophy, as various social media posts show.
The handcrafted work of art is shaped like a microphone and is made of solid transparent glass. When the star of the show tried to get up again, Nemo apparently slammed the trophy onto the stage too hard. The result: Half of the trophy was on the stage while the other half was still in the hand. According to “St. Galler Tagblatt” Nemo confirmed that the trophy had been broken, but a new one had been handed out by the organizers. Nemo also apparently sustained a thumb injury in the incident, and a bandage on his hand was visible at the press conference.
First Swiss victory since 1988
This did not seem to diminish the joy of the victory: Nemo won the first ESC victory for Switzerland since Céline in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which had the motto “United By Music”. Dion, 56, achieved this in 1988. The Croatian Baby Lasagna, 28, who has long been considered the favorite, and his song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” ended up in second place. The Ukrainians Alyona Alyona, 32, and Jerry Heil, 28, came third with “Teresa & Maria”. Germany’s Isaak, 29, scored a total of 117 points after the voting and came in twelfth place.