Austria took home the 69th Eurovision Song Contest with a powerful mix of pop and opera voice because 24-year-old artist JJ took home the contest with his “Wasted Love.”.
JJ, whose name is Johannes Pietsch, is an opera singer trained classically from Vienna of Filipino descent. His performance garnered a total of 436 points, beating Israel’s Yuval Raphael (2nd place) and Estonia’s Tommy Cash (3rd), per reports from AFP, DPA, and AP.
Unlike the semi-finals, the grand final merged audience votes with national jury scores, both of which assisted JJ in beating his competitors. His song “Wasted Love” was written by JJ himself, together with Teodora Spirić and Thomas Turner, and won over Europe with its emotional power and genre-bending performance.
This is Austria’s first Eurovision win since 2014, when Conchita Wurst stunned the world with “Rise Like a Phoenix.” JJ’s win brings the trophy back home to Austria after 11 years and beats out 25 other entries from across the continent.
Eurovision, the globe’s most-watched music contest, is broadcast live from member states of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Only three minutes are available to impress, and the winners are decided through a combination of professional juries and worldwide public voting.
This year’s contest was staged at the St. Jakobshalle Arena near Basel, Switzerland. As always, it is now the turn of Austria to host the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.
