known mononymously as Nemo, is a Swiss musician and singer-rapper who plays the violin, piano and drums. They were the first openly non-binary act to represent Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest, and later won the 2024 contest with the song "The Code". They were the first openly non-binary musician to win the contest, and the third winner representing Switzerland (following the 1956 and 1988 competitions).
Nemo began their interest in music at the age of three, learning to play the violin, piano and drum machine. They studied opera singing from age nine to thirteen. At the age of ten, they joined the Biel children's opera and performed in Mozart's The Magic Flute which was later used as inspiration for "The Code". At thirteen, they performed in the musical I've never been to New York. They also began rapping at this age, competing in Swiss contests and performing songs they independently wrote. They found early success in battle rap as a teenager and performed on season three of the Swiss television show Die grössten Schweizer Talente [de], receiving praise from the judges.
In 2015, Nemo released their first EP Clownfisch, under the name Nemo (CH), which peaked at number 95 in the Swiss charts. In 2016, when they were seventeen, Nemo's single "Cypher" went viral. In 2017, Nemo released the EPs Momänt-Kids and Fundbüro under the name Nemo (CH). Fundbüro contained the single "Du", which reached number 4 in Switzerland. "Ke Bock" and "Himalaya" also charted.[8] In the same year they studied solo singing in jazz and pop at Zurich University of the Arts, won the SRF 3 Best Talent prize, and later settled in Berlin to pursue their music career. In 2018, Nemo won four Swiss Music Prizes, including best song of the year for Du and best concert performance of the year.
After staying in Los Angeles in 2020, Nemo decided to switch from singing in Swiss German to English. On the second season of The Masked Singer Switzerland in 2021, they were unmasked as a panda and finished in fifth place. In 2022, they released their EP Whatever Feels Right, this time under the name Nemo. On 29 February 2024, they were announced as the Swiss representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with the song "The Code", and performed in the second semi-final of the contest, on 9 May. They won the Eurovision final on 11 May with 591 points, becoming the first openly non-binary performer to win the contest; they also finished with the fourth highest amount of points in the final in the competition's history.
