Key events
So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye!
OK, I am going to call it a day here. Thank you so much for reading. My favourite song won, so I am happy. Was it a vintage year? Maybe not. Were there some surprises? Yes. Switzerland getting nothing from the public vote when it had done so well with the jury was astonishing. And the UK may have not won over the public, but at least they got a good haul from the jury. Nobody got nul points. And we will always have this moment …
Thank you for all your comments, and especially the lovely and kind messages I have had by email. I WILL HOPEFULLY SEE YOU SAME TIME, SAME PLACE, NEXT YEAR! Well done JJ. 🇦🇹🥳
Here are some more pictures of Austria’s JJ, who has just won the 69th Eurovision song contest. Nice.
The news of the protests surrounding Israel’s participation, when the country came so close to winning, serves to underline how difficult a situation it would be for the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in the event of an Israeli victory.
The EBU would at that point have to decide whether it was safe to host the contest in Israel, and if it decided not, would presumably both offend Israel’s government with that decision, and have to find another EBU member to agree to co-host it on behalf of Israel. With some broadcasters already questioning the EBU’s policy over Israel’s participation there would potentially be a stronger prospect of a boycott at broadcaster level if Israel was a host or co-host.
My colleague Nadeem Badshah has this news report from earlier that a Eurovision crew member was hit with paint amid bid to disrupt tonight’s Israeli performance. In it, he writes:
A spokesperson for Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, which is organising the contest, said: “At the end of the Israeli performance, a man and a woman tried to get over a barrier on to the stage. They were stopped. One of the two agitators threw paint and a crew member was hit. The crew member is fine and nobody was injured. The man and the woman were taken out of the venue and handed over to the police.”
There have also been protests over Israel’s participation in the city centre of Basel. Police used teargas and rolled in a water cannon truck to prevent demonstrators from marching through the centre of the northern Swiss city.
You can read the report here: Eurovision crew member hit with paint amid bid to disrupt Israeli performance
Austria will host next year. Vienna has done the honours before, but I would be tempted to suggest Salzburg as the ideal host. Fairytale castle, do it in the football stadium, it is the home of the Sound of Music. Job done.
Here is the moment JJ realised he had won.
JJ is reprising his winning song, which was my favourite this year, just as Nemo was last year, so maybe the message here is ultimately if you can produce a Eurovision entry that will appeal to a fiftysomething Guardian live blogger, you are sorted.
Here are the scores on the doors …
1. Austria 436
2. Israel 357
3. Estonia 356
4. Sweden 321
5. Italy 256
…
19 UK 88
…
26 San Marino 27
…
Still DNQ Australia, a disgrace
JJ’s message while accepting the trophy is for there to be “more love”.
AUSTRIA WINS THE EUROVISION CONTEST!!!! 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹🎉🎉🎉🎉
Austria has won the Eurovision song contest after JJ triumphed in Basel with their song Wasted Love, an operatic ballad with soaring vocals that mutates into a club anthem for the finale. It is the third time the country has won, with JJ following in the footsteps of Udo Jürgens in 1965 and Conchita Wurst in 2014.
Switzerland, which hosted the first ever Eurovision song contest in 1956, was the venue this year after Nemo won in Malmö last year with their song The Code. Austria will be expected to host in 2026, with Vienna having twice held the competition before.
Viennese-born JJ has a range from counter tenor to soprano, and studies classical music. He co-wrote the winning song with Teodora Spiric and Thomas Turner. JJ has previously appeared under his given name Johannes Pietsch on The Voice UK.
Switzerland get zero from the public. WTF? Only Austria can catch Israel. They need 100 points or so from the public.
Unless Israel is going to hold on here …
The winners are most likely going to be Italy, France, Switzerland or Austria
UK gets zero points from public vote for second year running
Remember Monday have scored zero points with the public as the UK entry performed poorly with the phone vote for the second year running. Having received 88 points from the juries, they will finish 19th.
Finland’s Ich Komme is not coming on top either etc etc