Switzerland’s Nemo has won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest with a total of 591 points for their song, The Code.
Ireland’s Bambie Thug finished in sixth place on 278 points, the country’s best result for almost 25 years.
Bambie, a London-based, non-binary artist originally from Co Cork, said “love will always triumph hate” at the end of their performance in the Malmö Arena in Sweden.
Croatia finished in second place on 547 points, Ukraine came third with 453, France took fourth on 445 and Israel placed fifth on 375. Croatia was the favourite of the Irish public as they received the maximum 12 points in the Irish vote, while Israel came second with 10. The UK received zero points in the public votes across the competition.
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Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “I want to congratulate Bambie Thug for a stunning performance and tour de force at Eurovision 2024. They performed with passion, stopped us in our tracks and did us proud. The eruption of applause in the stadium at the end of Ireland’s performance spoke for itself.
“Congratulations to Switzerland on the win and well done to Sweden for hosting another showstopper. Thank you to our closest musical ally in Europe – Australia – for our only douze points! It’s Bambie Thug’s night as far as we’re concerned. Well done Bambie.”
Earlier on Saturday, Bambie said they missed their dress rehearsal after a “situation” required “urgent attention” from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
Bambie posted on their Instagram, saying: “Dear Coven, There was a situation while we were waiting to go to stage for the flag parade rehearsal which I felt needed urgent attention from the EBU – the EBU have taken this matter seriously and we have been in a discussion about what action needs to be taken.
“This means I have missed my dress rehearsal – I am really sorry to the fans that have come to see me. I hope to see you on the stage tonight.”
[ Eurovision final: Recount all the action step-by-stepOpens in new window ]
This year’s competition has been mired in controversy with Israel performing amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Israel’s act, Eden Golan, finished fifth but audible boos were heard over the live broadcast during her performance. Israel received a massive boost to their score as the results of the public vote were read out – they were awarded 323 points, briefly putting them on the top spot.
Nemo, the competition’s first non-binary winner, pipped Croatia and France in the tense public vote portion of the event. The Code blended several genres to convey their sense of discovery as a non-binary person.
Back in Ireland, a large crowd people gathered in Bambie’s hometown of Macroom to watch their performance on a big screen in the town square.
Ireland’s previous best result this century was in 2000 when Eamonn Toal competed with his song Millennium of Love and also came sixth.
Also on Saturday, Dutch act Joost Klein was disqualified in advance of the competition final.
It comes after Klein missed two scheduled dress rehearsals on Friday while an investigation into an alleged incident was carried out.
“Swedish police have investigated a complaint made by a female member of the production crew after an incident following his performance in Thursday night’s semi-final. While the legal process takes its course, it would not be appropriate for him to continue in the contest,” the EBU said.
Dutch broadcaster Avrotros said in a statement it was “shocked” by the “disproportionate” decision to remove Klein from the competition.
It said the singer had made a “threatening move” towards a camerawoman but not touched her.
“Against the clearly made agreement, Joost was filmed when he had just gotten offstage and had to rush to the green room. At that moment, Joost repeatedly indicated that he did not want to be filmed. This wasn’t respected.”
According to the broadcaster, it offered “several solutions” to the EBU, which decided to disqualify Klein anyway.
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