Switzerland will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 this year in Basel. Their journey in Eurovision starts at the very beginning of the contest, not only were they one of just 7 countries that took part in the very first edition, but they were also the hosts.
The 1956 contest took place in Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, in the Italian region of the country. For the only time in history, each country had 2 entries in the contest and Switzerland was represented twice by Lys Assia, who eventually won the contest with âRefrainâ.
Though of course now tradition dictates that the winning country hosts the following year, such a rule was not in place at the start and the contest moved on from Switzerland to Germany. Lys Assia returned in 1957 as well but this time finished 8th. The following year, Lys returned for a third and final time with the song âGiorgioâ which finished in second behind France; this made Lys the first artist to achieve a gold and silver medal at Eurovision.
A further few respectable scores followed, including Christa Williams who finished 4th in 1959 and Franca di Rienzo who finished 3rd in 1961. Switzerland were then looking set to win in 1963, however when Norwayâs points were dismissed from the voting sequence as the spokesperson explained that they were not correct once heâd announced them. Upon returning to Norway to conclude the voting, changes had been made to their set of scores and thus the victory was passed to Denmark who were just 2 points ahead of Switzerlandâs Esther Ofarim.
Following a close defeat in 1963, the following year Switzerlandâs luck turned for the worst, not only did Anita Traversi finish last, she was also the first Swiss entry at the contest to receive the unenviable ânull pointsâ. This unfortunate credit was then repeated in 1967 when GĂ©raldine also left the contest with 0 points.
The late 60s to the early 80s were arguably less successful for Switzerland, although they managed to secure a credible 4th place in 1970, 1976, 1980 and 1981, it wasnât until Arlette Zola in 1982 with the song âAmour on tâaimeâ who managed to secure Switzerland a top 3 finish for the first time in almost 20 years. The following 3 years they couldnât reach the top 10, however, in 1986 they were close to a second victory when Daniela Simons took second with âPas pour moiâ behind eventual winners Belgium.
CĂ©line Dion at Eurovision 1988
In 1988, Switzerland sent an at the time unknown Canadian singer, Celine Dion to the contest with the song âNe partez pas sans moiâ. On the night, Celine surpassed expectations and won the contest with just one point over the United Kingdom. Celine Dion of course has gone on to become one of the biggest artists in the world and one of Eurovisionâs greatest success stories. In 2005, the entry was even selected among the 14 best Eurovision entries ever when the EBU organised âCongratulationsâ, an event to select the best song in the 50 year history of the contest.
With Celineâs win, in 1989 the contest returned to Switzerland and this time was held in Lausanne in the French region in the Palais de Beaulieu. As hosts, Switzerland tried something new and sent Furbaz who performed their entry âViver senza teiâ in the lesser-spoken language of Romansh, one of the official languages of the country.
Following two more years outside the top 5, Switzerland then sent Sandra SimĂł with the song âCanzone per teâ in 1991. Not only did she secure a respectable fifth place, now known as Sandra Studer she makes her return 34 years on this year to the Eurovision world as she will be one of the hosts in Basel at this yearâs contest.
By 1993, doing well at the contest had slowly become more crucial as poor results could now result in relegation, as so many countries across the continent were now desperate to take part. Thankfully, Switzerland achieved a solid result this year with Annie Cotton, who reached third.
Sadly however, Switzerlandâs fortune reversed and after Duilio finished 19th and into the bottom 7, they faced relegation from the 1995 contest. This meant for the very first time since the contest began, Switzerland were not present and now only Germany could say they had taken part every year, though their fortunes also changed the following year, which began rules and exceptions going forward.
Relegation rules were then altered and started taking into account the results of the previous five contests, because of this, Switzerland were saved a few times as Annie Cottonâs 3rd place managed to keep them out of relegation. However, for a third time in their history, Gunvor sadly took Switzerland to the bottom of the board with 0 points for the song âLass ihnâ.
For a second time Switzerland were then relegated and had to sit out of Jerusalem for 1999, they then returned in 2000 where sadly a third relegation awaited them as Jane Bogaert finished 20th. Having then sat out of 2001, Switzerland returned in 2002, where alas Francine Jordi fared even worse and 22nd place meant once more Switzerland was relegated and sat out of Riga 2003.
Following a fourth absence from the contest, the EBU drastically changed the format, relegations were completely abolished and instead a semi-final for the Eurovision Song Contest was introduced and as many interested countries were allowed to compete. Meanwhile, big contributing countries to the corporation and high scorers from the previous year were rewarded with direct passes to the final.
Switzerland immediately returned in 2004 and entered the semi final with Piero and the MusicStars and the song âCelebrateâ. Sadly, not only did Switzerland not make the final that year, but in the first year of semi finals they secured 0 points as a nation for the fourth time. As this was a pre-qualifier this was deemed to be the worst ever showing for a country at the contest ever. That evening for the only time, the positions of the eliminated countries were revealed at the end of the broadcast. It is believed that Switzerland asked the EBU to never do this again due to the embarrassment and this feature was not used again.
In a new era of Eurovision, Switzerlandâs fortunes turned around in 2005, they once more were required to enter through the semi-final, where Vanilla Ninja managed to bring them to the final. The bandâs song âCool Vibesâ secured them 8th place, a first top 10 finish for them in 12 years and to this day remains a fan favourite.
Their top 10 finish was rewarded with a direct pass to the final for 2006, where a supergroup were formed called six4one who were from countries across Europe with the sole purpose of representing Switzerland with the song âIf We All Give a Littleâ. Sadly, the group only finished 16th.
The following decade ,Switzerland really struggled at the contest, despite being a fan favourite leading into the contest in 2007, they couldnât even reach the final in 2007 with DJ BoBo and the song âVampires are Aliveâ. In 2008 the semi-final format was developed and now there were 2 semi-finals with only the Big 4 and the host granted a space in the final. It was now even more crucial to win to secure a place in the final. Switzerland did not manage to reach the final in 2008, 2009 and in 2010 they even finished last in the semi-final once more with Michael von der Heide.
For the first time in 5 years, Switzerland managed to make the final in 2011 with Anna Rossinelli when the contest reached neighbouring Germany once more. Although Anna was praised for getting Switzerland back into the final, sadly when getting there, she finished last on the night.
Switzerland then went onto suffer two near misses in 2012 and 2013 and once more stayed out of the final, Sinplus in 2012 were taunted as they finished in 11th in the semi final meaning they were just a single space away from qualifying.
During this time however it is worth noting that Lys Assia, the first winner of the contest made two further attempts to represent Switzerland but to no success. She remained a loyal and encouraging supporter of the contest, making appearances regularly to the host cities until she sadly passed away in 2018.
In 2014 however Switzerland achieved more success, their entry âHunter of Starsâ finished 4th in the semi final and thus gained Switzerland entry to the final for the first time in 3 years, from there in perspective he achieved a reasonable 13th place, despite not reaching top 10 he gave the countryâs best showing in 9 years.
This success was not to last and the country were straight back to not qualifying in 2015 with MĂ©lanie RenĂ© who sadly came last in the semi final. Rykka also sadly couldnât fare much better, also coming last for Switzerland in the semi final in 2016. In 2017, hopes were higher for Timebelle and the song âApolloâ though sadly they could only reach 12th place in the semi final which wasnât enough. Zibbz were then selected for Switzerland in 2018 and became a fan favourite quite quickly, however it still wasnât enough and for a fourth year in a row, Switzerland couldnât qualify for the grand final.
Determined to reverse their fortunes, in 2019, Switzerland changed tactics and saw an instant change in their success rate. They opted for an internal selection and sent Luca HĂ€nni to the contest with âShe Got Meâ. For the first time in a long time, Switzerland were considered a front runner of the whole contest and managed to secure a spot in the final for the first time in 5 years. Luca did very well in Tel Aviv and finished in 4th place, the first time in 14 years they had achieved a top 10 and their best result since Annie Cotton in 1993.
Thrilled with their new found success, Gjonâs Tears was internally selected in 2020 with the song âRĂ©pondez-moiâ, Switzerland took a risk and sent an entry not in English for the first time in 10 years. Following their success the previous year, once more their entry was gaining momentum among fans as a favourite to win, however sadly due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the contest was cancelled for the first time in its history. Though disappointed, Switzerland were among the first countries to announce that they would be rolling over their artist into 2021 and Gjonâs Tears immediately returned.
Anticipation was high for Gjonâs Tears new entry and just short of a year after being selected, his new song âTout lâuniversâ was revealed, once again sung in French. The hype lived up to expectation and Gjonâs Tears managed to top the jury vote in the grand final and secure an even better 3rd place for the nation. In doing so, Gjonâs Tears also won the second semi final, a feat Switzerland had never achieved.
With two great results under their belt, Switzerland continued selecting internally, starting with the song âBoys Do Cryâ by Marius Bear. The song managed to get Switzerland to the final for an unprecedented third time however, sadly fared worse than Gjonâs Tears and Luca, only managing 17th place. Marius also received 0 points from the public vote. Remo Forrer was the artist for Switzerland in 2023 with âWatergunâ. He also managed to reach the final, where he finished in 20th place.
Although at this point, Switzerland had miraculously become one of the countries with the longest qualification streak, in 202,4 they were even more determined. Nemo was selected to represent them with âThe Codeâ. Like Luca and Gjonâs Tears before them, Nemo very quickly became a firm favourite to win last year in Malmö. As the contest came around, Nemo had slow momentum, reaching the final but only in 4th place in the semi final. However on the night Nemo surpassed all expectations, collecting 365 points from the jury alone and going on to win the entire competition.
This meant for the first time in 36 years, Eurovision was returning to where it all began. Bids to host the contest came immediately from Basel, Bern, Zurich, Geneva and St. Gallen. After a close battle with Geneva, it was Basel in the German region of the nation that was granted the pleasure of hosting in St. Jakobshalle.
Switzerland will be represented this year by ZoĂ« MĂ« and the song âVoyageâ. As the host country, they have been granted an automatic space in the grand final for the first time since 2006, we also already know Switzerland will be performing in the 19th slot in the final.
Image Source: SRF
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