Zoë Më represented host country Switzerland at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC). The world’s biggest music competition took place in Basel in May, returning to Switzerland for the first time in 37 years following Nemo’s win last year. The 25-year-old Zoë Më performed with aplomb in front of a TV audience of 170 million – deliberately eschewing a spectacular stage show. The minimalist staging of poetic ballad “Voyage” relied entirely on the magic of Zoë Më’s enchanting voice. The singer invited the public on an “emotional journey for greater humanity” with the song, which she sang in French.
Her authentic performance convinced the jurors, although the Eurovision public with its penchant for the spectacular was less impressed. As a result, Switzerland finished tenth out of 26 finalists. Zoë Më received an award for the best composition of all participating countries with “Voyage”. There was also a touch of Swiss in Austria’s winning entry at this year’s Eurovision: the producer of “Wasted Love” by opera singer JJ is Zurich’s Pele Loriano, who had collaborated on Nemo’s winning entry “The Code” in 2024.
For Zoë Më – real name Zoë Kressler – the musical journey she started as a child goes on: she started writing songs at age ten, initially in German. Zoë Më was born in Basel and spent her early years in Germany before her family moved to the bilingual canton of Fribourg in 2009. Zoë discovered her love of French there and has seen herself as a bridge builder over linguistic and cultural borders ever since.
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