Cliff Notes – Austria wins Eurovision Song Contest 2025 as UK annihilated in public vote
- Austria’s JJ triumphed in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with his powerful ballad "Wasted Love," securing a total of 436 points after a strong public vote performance.
- The UK’s entry, pop-country group Remember Monday, finished 19th with only 88 points, failing to gain any support from the public vote.
Austria wins Eurovision Song Contest 2025 as UK annihilated in public vote
And the winner of Eurovision 2025 is… (Picture: AP)
After epic performances from 26 countries and votes cast by both the jury and the viewing public, we have our Eurovision Song Contest 2025 winner.
Tonight, the Grand Final took place in Basel, Switzerland, with the competition held there following Nemo’s win with The Code in 2024.
Representing the UK, three-piece pop-country girl group Remember Monday delivered a high-fashion performance of their theatrical tune, What The Hell Just Happened?
But after a lengthy scoring process, we can reveal that Austria has been victorious with their entrant, JJ.
The 24-year-old performer’s tune Wasted Love showcased incredible vocals, and he now follows in the footsteps of previous Austrian wins, including drag artist Conchita Wurst in 2014 with Rise Like A Phoenix, and 1966’s Udo Jurgens with Merci Cherie.
Vienna-born JJ is an Austrian-Filipino opera singer and has been studying at the Music and Art Private University of Vienna (MUK).
JJ of Austria rocketed up the leaderboard thanks to his song, Wasted Love (Picture: AP)
The 24-year-old burst into tears when the outcome was revealed (Picture: Reuters)
He did it! (Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Following his winning moment, the singer – real name Johannes Pietsch – took to the stage to lift the trophy with pride, visibly emotional.
Following the conclusion of the jury vote results, Austria sat firmly at the top of the scoreboard with 258 points, while Switzerland was second with 214, and France had 180.
Of course, the public vote is known for flipping the entire thing on its head; hence, it came down to the wire between Austria and Israel, with Yuval Raphael flying up the standings thanks to audiences at home.
Consequently, JJ required the equivalent of 100 from the public to win, which he rocketed past by bagging 178 more points, claiming victory with a total of 436.
JJ tearfully said on the mic: ‘I want to thank my entire family, my entire team, thank you so much for making my dreams come true. And especially to you, Europe, thank you for making my dreams come true.
‘Love is the strongest force in the world. Let’s spread more love.
‘Thank you so much.’
He then performed Wasted Love one more time as the thousands-strong crowd sang along.
Meanwhile, the UK girl group, which consists of Lauren Byrne, Holly-Anne Hull and Charlotte Steele, received a total of 88 points, totally annihilating the previous curse of our acts finishing with ‘nil points.’
Although that did not change at all with the addition of the viewer vote, as the trio received nothing from the public, placing them 19th, just one position behind 2024 entry Olly Alexander.
The UK has won Eurovision just five times in its history, the last being in 1997 when Katrina And The Waves won in Dublin, Ireland, with the song Love Shine A Light.
Since then, one of the UK’s strongest performances came when TikTok star Sam Ryder earned second place in Turin in 2022 with Space Man. Liverpool hosted the competition the following year on behalf of war-stricken Ukraine.
Girl group Remember Monday represented the UK this year (Picture: AP)
But at least no country went home empty-handed tonight, even though San Marino found themselves at the bottom of the leaderboard with just 27 points for their song Tutta l’Italia.
The UK was also in good company with its public vote results, as Iceland’s Vaeb, whose song was called Roa, got sweet nothing from the jury, ending in 25th place after scraping 33 points from the viewers.
Tonight, the UK’s national jury votes were announced by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor after Doctor Who actor Ncuti Gatwa pulled out of British Eurovision spokesperson duties just days ago, citing ‘unforeseen circumstances’.
Our 12 points went to Latvia, while we also awarded 10 points to Denmark and eight to Austria.
As for the viewer vote, the UK gave 12 points to Israel, 10 to Poland, and eight to Lithuania.
Israeli singer Yuval Raphael was looking a likely winner at one point (Picture: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Pro-Palestine protests raged on the streets of Basel (Picture: Reuters)
Elsewhere in the final, former champ Nemo returned with a reprised version of their winning track, while previous Eurovision runners-up Croatia’s Baby Lasagna and Finland’s Kaarija also performed a raucous duet.
But the contest didn’t exactly conclude without a hitch, as Israeli entry Raphael almost had her performance stormed by protesters.
Police confirmed that demonstrators attempted to climb over the barrier from the crowd to throw paint at her, which ended up over an ESC crew member.
They were immediately removed from the venue and handed over to police, who let them go.
Protests against Israel’s involvement in Eurovision have raged all week, with hundreds taking over the streets of Basel just hours before the final began and facing off with cops.
Spanish broadcasters also risked a fine by displaying a pro-Palestine message amid the ongoing Gaza war, despite being previously warned that this would result in a fine, given that Eurovision is meant to be ‘non-political’.
2024 winner Nemo returned tonight to perform their new song (Picture: EPA)
Alas, despite sharing a video message in the first semi-final, Celine Dion did not appear (Picture: EPA)
More tears were shed when it became apparent that Celine Dion was not going to appear following days of teasing.
Rumours flew around for days as fans were convinced she was plotting a surprise comeback, having credited her 1988 Eurovision victory for her global success.
Alas, it seems the heartfelt video message in Tuesday’s semi-final is all we were ever going to get.
Tonight’s final was hosted by Michelle Hunziker, who was joined by semi-final hosts Hazel Brugger and Sandra Studer on the stage in St. Jakobshalle.
Switzerland first hosted the competition in 1956 in Lugano, with the Basel government estimating that more than half a million people have visited the city so far this week.
Catch up with Eurovision 2025 on BBC iPlayer.
