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Eurovision winner Nemo has released their first new song since triumphing in Malmö in May. Check out ‘Eurostar’ below, along with our interview with the Swiss singer-songwriter.
‘Eurostar’ is a bombastic, off-kilter pop stomper that harnesses Nemo’s new, even more exuberant energy since they moved to London in August. “I took the Eurostar from Paris and you know what fuckin’ for,” Nemo sings on the chorus. “I wanna dance, I wanna party, do it like no one before.”
Nemo, whose drum and bass–influenced Eurovision tune ‘The Code’ won the competition this year and cracked the Top 20, was living in Berlin before they decided to relocate to the UK.
“Berlin doesn’t offer the right structure for the music I’m doing,” Nemo told NME. “It’s a very specific music market. The alternative scene is obviously really great, but the pop [there] is extremely pop – extremely radio pop.
“So I kind of found myself having nowhere to go with the music that I make, which is very pop, but not so radio in a way. In my music, there’s a lot of experimentation and trying new things out.”
Nemo said that the UK has always been very receptive to “super-interesting pop”, a description that definitely fits ‘Eurostar’, which pivots from thumping EDM verses to massive baroque choruses with a hint of Queen. It’s a bold, bracing follow-up to ‘The Code’, on which Nemo sang stirringly about getting to grips with their non-binary identity: “I went to hell and back to find myself on track / I broke the code.”
The artist admitted they are finding London more “hectic” than Berlin, but also said that they have already met “so many incredible collaborators” and are confident they can “make something really amazing here”.
Here, Nemo spoke to NME about their upcoming album, becoming something of a political lobbyist thanks to ‘The Code’, and the prospect of a Celine Dion performance when Eurovision heads to Switzerland in 2025.
NME: Hi Nemo. So, what kind of message are you putting out there with ‘Eurostar’?
Nemo: “It’s a lot of things. It’s celebrating my arrival in London and it feels very queer in the verses. I love singing, ‘Clear my wardrobe, want it all princess‘ in, like, the most deep voice I have! The chorus has this very intense energy, but the whole song doesn’t take itself too serious.
“‘The Code’ was such a retrospective song – it talks about my journey of discovering that I’m queer and coming to terms with it – but ‘Eurostar’ is very present and urgent. It talks about things that are happening right now in this very crazy and chaotic time for me.”
Why do you think ‘The Code’ connected so strongly with so many people?
“I think because the intention wasn’t to connect to anyone specifically – the intention was to tell my story authentically. I’ve got the feedback that even people who aren’t non-binary themselves can relate to it in some way. Maybe it wasn’t so much the specific sentiment of the song, but the moment it created and the kind of conversations it started. A few weeks before Eurovision, I met one of the Swiss presidents in a [TV show’s] makeup room – we were both getting our makeup done, but in very different ways of course!
“And then afterwards I thought, ‘Maybe there’s a way I can lobby him about recognising a third gender option [for non-binary people] on passports?’ They already have that in Germany and Austria, but not in Switzerland or, I think, in the UK. So I sent him an Instagram DM and got a reply [saying] ‘the president doesn’t respond to DMs, but we can set up a coffee meeting’. I mentioned this at the Eurovision press conference and it became a huge story in the Swiss media: like, ‘The first non-binary winner of Eurovision is meeting the one of the presidents to discuss a third gender option on passports’.”
And did the meeting happen?
“It did! I mean, I was not alone – I was joined by people from Transgender Network Switzerland. But we had the conversation and he was very open to it. He’s one of seven Swiss presidents and he’s from the left, but he was like, ‘These things take a lot of time to implement because Switzerland has a direct democracy. Anything that has a majority in parliament can still be challenged by the opposing party.
“If you get 100,000 signatures [from members of the public who object], it goes to the people to decide [in a referendum]. So it’s about getting the moment right and making sure people are talking about this subject in an informed way. Campaigners are focusing their energy now on collecting more research on trans and non-binary people in Switzerland so they can go in with all the facts.”
It’s been reported that Celine Dion, the last Swiss entrant to win Eurovision before you, could be performing in Basel next year. It needs to happen, right?
“Yeah, I talked to one of the production people and he was saying, like, they’re asking [her]. I mean, of course they want it – I think everyone wants Celine Dion to come to Eurovision next year. But I got asked in another interview if I would want to duet with Celine Dion and I said, ‘Absolutely not!’ Obviously I would love to perform with Celine Dion, but I also think it would be a very magical moment if she did it solo. I also feel like when Celine Dion performs, any other performer [on stage] becomes a bit irrelevant. So I’ll just go and watch!”
Are there any UK artists you’d like to see compete in Basel?
“That’s an interesting thought. I think the question is, like, who wants to do it now? Because Olly [Alexander] was such a great candidate, and next to him being the sweetest person ever, I really thought his performance was super-cool and his song was great. I was like, ‘Somehow this feels biased in a way?’. Like, I don’t know why the UK [didn’t finish higher]. So I think it would have to be someone who really wants to do it and who’s going to really enjoy the process no matter the outcome.”
What is the main aim for you next year – can we expect an album?
“An album has to be the next thing. I’m writing it now and probably going to release it sometime in the spring. I know it has to be an album that comes out immediately after I write it because the core theme is similar to ‘Eurostar’ – it’s going to be about urgency and all the things that are happening to me right now. I don’t want to write love songs or whatever.”
Charli XCX has really shown that you can write and release super-fast if you want to.
“Exactly – I feel very inspired by that aspect of Charli XCX. And I feel like Billie Eilish‘s writing on her recent album has become more… kind of not too over-thought. There’s something really exciting about that. What even is ‘perfect’ anyway? Sometimes it’s more about capturing a feeling than over-conceptualising everything lyrics-wise. It’s cool to have a project like that, but it’s also a very tight timeline for me. But I believe in pressure. Eurovision was the most pressure I’ve ever experienced and it worked out pretty well.”
‘Eurostar’ by Nemo is out now via Better Now Records.