Austria’s JJ Wins Eurovision 2025 with ‘Wasted Love’

Austria has won the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland after a tense vote count which saw a number of other favourites underperform.

Opera singer JJ triumphed with his song “Wasted Love”, topping the jury vote and earning enough points in the public poll to collect 436 points overall. He was second in the betting odds going into this morning’s grand final.

It’s the third time Austria has won Eurovision, after they last triumphed 11 years ago in 2014 with iconic ‘bearded woman’ Conchita Wurst and their song “Rise Like a Phoenix”.

JJ finished 79 points ahead of Israel’s Yuval Raphael, the public vote winner, with “New Day Will Rise” scoring 357 points. Estonia’s Tommy Cash was also boosted by a big public vote and was only one point behind her in third (356 points) with “Espresso Machiatto”.

Pre-competition favourites Sweden, represented by Finnish comedy trio KAI, failed to dominate the public vote as expected, and finished fourth (321 points) with their sauna anthem “Bada Bara Bastu”. A high jury score propelled Italy’s Luca Corsi into an unexpected fifth place finish with “Volevo Essere Un Duro” (“I Wanted to Be a Tough Guy”).

San Marino – represented by former Eiffel 65 member and DJ Gabry Ponte – had the dubious honour of finishing last with “Tutta l’Italia” (25 points).

It’s the second year in a row a song with operatic elements has won Eurovision, with many comparing “Wasted Love” to last year’s winner, “The Code” by Switzerland’s Nemo. JJ’s performance was also broadcasted to viewers entirely in black and white.

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Showcasing the importance of a good jury score, it’s the third year in a row that the jury vote winner has won Eurovision, with the public vote winner finishing runner-up.

The victory earns Austria the right to host next year’s contest, and avoids a logistical and political nightmare for Eurovision organisers given Israel’s ongoing war with Palestine.

The public vote reveal threw up some major surprises. Pre-contest favourite Sweden, dark horse Finland, and the highly-rated France all underperformed, failing to catch up to Israel and Estonia.

Host nation Switzerland – considered to have a strong chance at going back-to-back – finished second in the jury vote, but had their chances dashed with a shock zero points from the public. More predictably, the UK also recieved zero points from the public for the second year in a row.

Iceland failed to receive any points from the juries, but scored 33 points from the public to save them from the wooden spoon and finish 25th overall.