WORTH A LOOK?: ****

Next year’s 69th Eurovision Song Contest is in Basel, Switzerland thanks to Nemo, the show’s 1st non-binary winner, with a song that placed 5th in its televote but was the runaway jury winner.

• Read on for reasons including how to see Nemo live in London in 2025

There was a lot that was wrong with this year’s Eurovision in Sweden – perhaps unfairly underlined after the triumph that was the 2023 Liverpool edition – which we’ll come to as we preview next year’s event but that certainly couldn’t be said of Nemo’s Break the Code of which we wrote: ‘‘Somewhere between the 0s and 1s …’ goes the song and this is a very clever leaning into the non-binary world that may strike a chord with some. Vocally it’s very Mika/Queen and going to be a real challenge to perform live and musically this has Eminem and Bond theme flourishes. We think it’s a dark horse for the win and will do far better than people are currently predicting.’

Eurostar is not at all what we were expecting as its follow up but at a time when 2023 Eurovision winner Loreen is still trying to birth a follow-up album perhaps choosing the path less well travelled is not necessarily a bad thing.

Nemo’s apparently moved from Berlin to London which perhaps explains the sweary lyric: ‘I took the Eurostar from Paris and you know what f*cking for’ although we don’t know for sure but could perhaps hazard a guess.

The train-based titular reference and video will perhaps remind of the promo for Break The Code but we’re quite enjoying Nemo letting down their hair a little metaphorically while trilling: ‘Life’s too short to ever get bored, I wanna get messy’ although we wouldn’t advise: ‘Then touch up at the bus stop
I know you love it when I’m f*cked up’ yet it does sound very much like England’s capital city and the weekend nightbus home.

Doubtless we’ll see Nemo return with something slightly more in keeping with Break The Code at May’s Swiss Eurovision final although for the die-hards there is the opportunity to join them on tour in venues including in Barcelona and London for live solo gigs early next year.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Nemo Tickets
• Have you seen a Nemo show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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