Austria wins Eurovision

Austria has won the Eurovision Song Contest with JJ, the stage name of Johannes Pietsch, and his operatic and pop-inspired heartbreak ballad, Wasted Love , beating Israel, which led the standings in a dizzying tally of points after combining the scores from the national juries and the televote of each of the 37 participating countries, of which only 26 competed in the final. Israel held on to the lead until the very end thanks to the strong support of the audience vote.

JJ received 436 points, which is Austria's third Eurovision victory after Udo Jürgens in 1966 and Conchita Wurst in 2014. Melody, representing Spain with the flamenco-inspired electropop Esa diva , came in third to last with 37 points.

Read also

An emotional JJ went up to collect his trophy, the coveted crystal microphone, on the stage of the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, the Swiss host city of the 69th edition of the veteran festival of European and associated public television channels. “I want to thank my entire family and my team for helping me achieve my dreams, and thanks to Europe as well, let's spread peace and love throughout the world,” said the young countertenor.

Israel's silver medal came thanks to Yuval Raphael's 357 points for his ballad "New Day Will Rise ," while the bronze went to Estonia's Tommy Cash for his parody song "Espresso Macchiato," which earned 356 points. Sweden, the bookmakers' favorite to win with a sauna ode sung by the Finnish trio KAJ, had to settle for fourth place.

Israel's presence at Eurovision continues to generate controversy over the war in Gaza, and in this edition caused tensions between RTVE and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organizer of the competition. On Saturday, the Spanish public broadcaster received a written response from the EBU regarding remarks about deaths in the war in Gaza made by its commentators before Israel's performance in the second semifinal on Thursday. Israeli television station KAN complained to the EBU.

"We can confirm that we have spoken with RTVE about this matter and have made it clear that commentators are expected to remain neutral during Eurovision broadcasts," EBU sources told La Vanguardia. In response to this demand, at the beginning of its broadcast of the final, TVE's La 1 channel launched the following message against a black background: "In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and justice for Palestine."

Otherwise, it was an electrifying and excessive gala, as Eurovision galas always are, presented with skill and humor by Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer, the latter representing Switzerland at the 1991 festival, who were joined by Michelle Hunziker, an Italian-Swiss model, actress, and presenter. In the suspense of the points count, Chanel, third place in 2022 with SloMo , was in charge of announcing the Spanish jury's douze points , which went to Switzerland. The Spanish televote awarded Israel.

In the final, we were delighted to hear the song "Lighter" by Norway's representative, Kyle Alessandro, whose father is Spanish and whose mother is Norwegian. And performers from the Mediterranean region placed high in the list of winners. Italy, Greece, and France finished in fifth, sixth, and seventh place thanks to soloists Lucio Corsi, Klavdia, and Louane.

The statistics Songs in 20 languages, a record

A much-celebrated statistic from this year's Eurovision Song Contest is that there were songs in 20 languages, a record never before seen since the requirement to sing in a country's own language or languages ​​was lifted in 1999. This propelled English into the international audience. In 2025, we've heard not only Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and French—whose countries traditionally compete almost always in their own languages—but also Armenian, Georgian, Latvian, Serbian, Swedish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and Polish, among others. Eurofans and the EBU hope this trend continues, as a sign of the continent's linguistic richness.