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Hip-Hop Lives Here
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’.”
“‘Next Big Thing’ is the result of my first 15 years in the music industry, from audience members shouting ‘Take your top off!’ during my first shows at 15, to label executives telling me to be less ‘sensitive’ about being sexually harassed,” Du Blonde reveals in a press statement.
“Every line in the song is something that has been personally said to me by folks in the industry, but speak to almost any woman or femme-presenting musician and they will have stories to match.”
They also share how Skin had been an influence not just on them, but on “kids like me in the 90s” for being “outspoken about her experiences as a frontwoman of a rock band in a male-dominated field.
“It’s pioneers like her who paved the way for a lot of young girls and queer kids who didn’t necessarily see themselves on TV or global stages, and I’m so grateful to have her join me on this track.”
Other guest artists on ‘Sniff More Gritty’ include Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and The Futureheads’ Ross Millard.
Check out the tracklist and album cover below.
1 – ‘Perfect’
2 – ‘Dollar Coffee’
3 – ‘Solitary Individual’ (feat. Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace)
4 – ‘TV Star’
5 – ‘Out of a Million’
6 – ‘ICU’
7 – ‘Blame’
8 – ‘Lucky’
9 – ‘Yesterday’
10 – ‘Next Big Thing’ (feat. Skunk Anansie’s Skin)
11 – ‘Radio Jesus’ (feat. Maximo Park’s Paul Smith & The Futureheads’ Ross Millard)
12 – ‘Metal Detector’
Alongside the album announcement, they also shared details of a UK tour commencing early next year. Du Blonde will kick off the shows on January 22 in Edinburgh, before heading to Glasgow (23), Newcastle (24), Manchester (26) and Leeds (28). They’ll then perform in Bristol, Birmingham and Brighton in early February, before wrapping up the live dates in London on February 6. You can find all tour dates below and buy your tickets here.
JANUARY 2025
22 – Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh
23 – Broadcast, Glasgow
24 – The Cluny, Newcastle
26 – YES (Basement), Manchester
28 – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
29 – Yellow Arch, Sheffield
31 – Bodega, Nottingham
FEBRUARY
1 – The Flapper, Birmingham
2 – Thekla, Bristol
4 – DUST, Brighton
6 – Moth Club, London
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