Austria’s JJ Wins Eurovision 2025, Ukraine Breaks Into the Top Ten
Austria emerged as the winner of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, held in Basel, Switzerland, with the emotionally charged performance “Wasted Love” by JJ.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to Suspilne.
The 24-year-old singer captivated both juries and viewers, earning a combined 436 points – an impressive 258 from national juries and 178 from the public vote. This victory marks Austria’s third win in the competition’s history and solidifies JJ’s status as one of the country’s most promising new artists.
The final rankings revealed a tightly contested race for the top spots. Israel’s Yuval Raphael and Estonia’s Tommy Cash followed closely behind with 357 and 356 points respectively, while fan-favorites from Sweden and Italy rounded out the top five. Despite strong pre-contest predictions, Sweden’s KAJ ultimately landed in fourth place.
Ukraine’s entry, the band “Ziferblat”, finished 9th overall with a respectable 218 points. While the jury awarded them only 60 points, placing them in 14th position, the public vote painted a different picture, garnering 156 points and reaffirming strong audience support across Europe.
Not all countries, however, found favor with the public. Switzerland, despite earning 214 points from juries, received zero from televoters – a fate shared by the United Kingdom, which for the second year in a row failed to attract a single point from viewers at home and abroad.
JJ, born Johannes Pitch in Vienna in 2001, brings a diverse cultural background to the stage – his father is an Austrian IT entrepreneur and his mother a chef originally from the Philippines. Raised in Dubai during his early years, JJ returned to Austria in his teens, where he immersed himself in the world of classical music.
Currently a student at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, JJ also honed his vocal skills at the Vienna State Opera’s youth program. His journey to stardom began with a breakthrough performance on Starmania in 2021, where he reached the finals, and continued with a stint on the UK’s “The Voice”.
Eurovision 2025 winner JJ has drawn criticism after an old interview resurfaced in which he cited Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko, widely condemned for her ties to Vladimir Putin, as his artistic inspiration for the song “Wasted Love”. Although Netrebko faced widespread boycotts in the West following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she is now making a controversial return to major venues, including the Royal Opera House in London for the 2025–26 season.
Read more on The Gaze: Top 5 Most Streamed Eurovision 2025 Songs on Spotify: Finland, Spain, Greece, Malta, Ukraine