And then there is Hazel Brugger

Hazel Brugger puts her fists under her armpits and begins to flutter. The first singers appeared in the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday evening at Basel's St. Jakobshalle, when the comedian awkwardly moves around the huge stage to the "Duck Dance." The famous melody was composed by a Swiss music teacher and is now part of the interlude entertainment for the Eurovision audience.

Hazel Brugger is currently one of the most successful women in the German-speaking comedy scene. Starting out on small stages in Switzerland, she now performs her solo show on stages throughout Germany, produces successful podcasts, and appears on German television. Brugger is known for her wicked, dry humor. She usually appears on stage in sneakers, jeans, and a T-shirt, delivering political satire and making jokes about everyday things.

The Eurovision Song Contest is the world's largest music competition. It's extravagant, shrill, cheerful, and absolutely apolitical. Brugger's co-hosts, Sandra Studer and Michele Hunziker, are established figures in show business. Studer in Switzerland, Hunziker in Italy.

At first glance, Hazel Brugger and the Eurovision Song Contest don't seem to fit together at all. Or do they?

Hazel Brugger was born in the USA in 1993 and grew up in Dielsdorf in the canton of Zurich. As a young adult, she asserted herself in the poetry slam scene, which began developing in Switzerland in the 2010s. Short texts, sometimes poetic, sometimes humorous, are read to an audience. Hazel Brugger's texts are particularly well-received, and in 2013 she won the Swiss championships.

Afterwards, she said: "Once you've chosen a path, you mustn't derail and become soft at the end." Brugger soon concentrated solely on her stage career, abandoning her studies in philosophy and literature at the University of Zurich.

The Swiss poetry slam scene has produced well-known artists: Gabriel Vetter, Lara Stoll, Dominik Muheim, Lisa Christ. But Brugger was more successful than all of them. She was refreshingly courageous, direct, and wicked. She probably filled a vacuum , she said, that others hadn't even known existed.

Her father once said that Hazel was already very articulate for her age at the age of two. She herself said that she had always noticed that her brain worked a little differently than others. Brugger demonstrates what she means by this, especially when she improvises: She is incredibly direct, clever, and quick. Her punchlines are spot-on – and often embarrassing for those she's speaking to. In a 2016 profile, the NZZ wrote: "As a slam poet, she puts everything and everyone down, and that's precisely why we love her."

Switzerland soon became too small for Brugger. In 2019, she told NZZaS about her move to Germany that the Swiss cultural landscape was comfortable. There was no reason to take risks because, thanks to cultural funding, one was always taken care of. "I moved to Germany because I wanted to be afraid again. All the people there were strangers who didn't want to see me."

But her fear was hardly noticeable, and the Germans were impressed by her impudent manner.

In 2016, Brugger became a field reporter for ZDF's satirical show "Heute-Show." Her interview with then-Economy Minister Peter Altmaier on International Women's Day is legendary. Altmaier tried to dismiss one of Brugger's questions with a phrase. Brugger retorted: "If the words 'alt' and 'Eier' were also in my name, I could give such a rambling answer." Then she looked at him, smiled, and stroked his shoulder. Only then did Altmaier pause and ask: "You said "alt" and "Eier"?

In 2017, Brugger won the Salzburger Stier, the most prestigious cabaret award in the German-speaking world. In 2020, she won the German Comedy Award for Best Comedian. In 2024, she also won the German Cabaret Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy. This year, she is touring Germany, Switzerland, and Austria with her fourth stage show, "Immer noch wach" (Still Awake).

Brugger has been married to German comedian Thomas Spitzer since 2020, has two children, and has moved to the countryside. She now jokes about motherhood on her show, and she and her partner discuss their marriage and family life in podcasts. On social media, she reported on her struggles with building a house. On her website, she sells T-shirts with the slogan "Mutti ist kaputti" (Mummy is broken). Brugger has also faced criticism from the media: her podcast with her husband is staid. The rebellious, sassy young woman has become a bourgeois Bünzli (a kind of bourgeois).

Brugger says that her fame has deprived her of her most important source of inspiration. She can no longer sit on a tram and watch people as easily. Now she's the one being watched. Therefore, her jokes now revolve more around her own life.

Hazel Brugger became popular for her spontaneous, improvised, and nasty remarks. And now she's on the Eurovision stage, hosting a highly organized show in which almost everything is prescribed and everyone has to be very, very nice to one another.

On Tuesday, at least, it was noticeable that she wasn't yet entirely comfortable in this new role. During her speeches, she stood rather stiffly next to a relaxed Sandra Studer, delivering her lines monotonously and memorized into the camera. Her jokes also seemed rehearsed, predictable, and well-behaved.

Brugger once said she wanted to know everything, be able to do everything, and do everything. She had diverse interests, was very ambitious, and wanted to prove to herself what was still possible. Switzerland quickly became too small for Hazel Brugger. But is the Eurovision Song Contest now too big for Hazel Brugger?

Michelle Hunziker will bring celebrity and glamour to the stage as the presenter in Saturday's final. Sandra Studer is a proven Eurovision expert and a surefire Swiss asset. Hazel Brugger is the young, inexperienced one alongside the two. Brugger said of her colleagues that the other two bring much more. She only has the sense of humor.

But with her quick tongue and improvisational talent, Brugger could break with the expectations that plague a major event like the Eurovision Song Contest. It's unclear how much freedom she was given by the producers to do this, or whether she even dares to deviate from the script.

At least: The longer the semifinal lasted on Tuesday evening, the more relaxed Brugger became. Before the points were awarded, she sat on the sofas with the artists, made faces with her tongue, and mocked a security guard who wore a serious face. It may not have been Hazel Brugger at her best yet. But there's still a semifinal and the final to come.