Austria's countertenor JJ wins Eurovision 2025 while Israel takes second place

With his angelic smile and a song about unrequited love, countertenor JJ of Austria won the popular 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland early Sunday morning. Israel placed second, and Estonia placed third.

The 24-year-old JJ came out on top in votes from national juries across Europe and viewers on the continent and beyond, earning 436 points with "Wasted Love," which mixes lyrical tones with a modern rhythmic base.

Israel, which again divided the audience with its participation, scored 357 points and Estonia rounded out the podium, with 356 units.

"Thanks to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true," said the Austrian countertenor, whose given name is Johannes Pietsch.

"Love is the most powerful force in the world. Let's spread more love," the singer continued, catapulting Austria to its first Eurovision since the triumph of bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst 11 years ago.

The 69-year-old contest is the world's biggest television entertainment program, won by such illustrious names in music as the Swedish group ABBA, French singer France Gall or Canadian Céline Dion, who represented Switzerland.

"This surpasses my wildest dreams. It's crazy," JJ added, who hit the high notes between opera and techno with "Wasted Love."

Her performance was filmed in black and white, in the 4:3 ratio of the monochrome television era.

Sweden, the historical dominator of the contest, was the bookmakers' favorite, with comedy trio KAJ and their entertaining sauna homage, "Bara bada bastu."

But it deflated as the votes came in, coming in fourth place ahead of Italy, Greece and France.

Separate, equally weighted votes from the jury and viewers from each of this year's 37 participating countries, plus an extra vote from the rest of the world combined, decided who would win the coveted microphone-shaped trophy.

"Sense of unity"

Music, kitsch, glitter, spectacular stage sets, a high-definition LED wall and pyrotechnics captured the attention and votes of some 160 million viewers in Europe and beyond.

At the start of the show, the 26 finalists took the stage with their national flags to the thunderous sound of a traditional drum corps.

The songs performed in the Swiss city of Basel showcased Europe's different music scenes: a Portuguese guitar ballad, a Maltese diva, Lithuanian alternative rock, an Italian song, a Greek ballad, ethereal Latvian choral folk and thunderous German rhythms.

"We started all this in the hope of restoring a sense of unity, tranquility and solidarity in a complicated world," Martin Green declared, director of the competition, his eyes misty with tears.

"It just blows my mind that [Eurovision] conveys such a profound and magnificent message to the rest of the world," he added.

However, the demonstrations against the war in Gaza, which mobilized thousands of people at last year's edition in the Swedish city of Malmö, did not generate as much interest in Basel.

Nevertheless, there was a brief clash between police and anti-Israel protesters away from the festival grounds. The police used pepper spray.

Adrenaline

Fans packed all 6,500 tickets for Saturday's finale at the Sankt Jakobshalle stadium.

"This is my first live show at Eurovision - I have goosebumps, I'm so excited!" 20-year-old Luena Beeler recounted, wearing a sequined red dress and carrying a large Austrian flag over her shoulders.

"This is one of my life's dreams!" she said.

Norway's Kyle Alessandro opened the evening with an explosion of flames, followed by Luxembourg's Laura Thorn, with an anti-patriarchy theme evoking the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" by French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. France Gall's rendition of this song gave Luxembourg its victory 60 years ago.

During Israel's performance, by singer Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza, there were whistles and applause, again dividing the audience.

The 24-year-old, who performed "New Day Will Rise," survived playing dead under a pile of corpses during the massacre perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist group.

With her song, she wanted to launch a universal message of "hope and solidarity" beyond external calls to boycott Israel's presence at the European song festival.

In the midst of this controversial participation, Spanish public television, RTVE, defied the festival's governing body, which had warned it to stop referring to the war in Gaza under threat of sanction.

Before the broadcast of the final began, RTVE broadcast an on-screen message in Spanish and English that read: "In the face of human rights, silence is not an option. Peace and Justice for Palestine."