The winner of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest was Austria with the song “Wasted Love”, performed by JJ, and in the end they celebrated ahead of Israel in a dramatic finish. Israel surprisingly received the most votes from the audience and thus found themselves in the fight for victory.
The winner was decided based on the votes of the expert jury and the audience in a ratio of 50:50. Austria ultimately had 436 points, and received 178 from the audience.
The song was written by JJ himself together with Teodora Špirić and Thomas Turner, and this is the third time that Austria has won the Eurovision Song Contest.
Although Sweden was considered the favorite to win before tonight’s final, when the votes of the international juries were read, it was clear that things were not going their way.
Israel stood out at the very top with 357 total votes, and was eventually surpassed by Austria. Estonia, represented by Tommy Cash, took third place, Sweden finished fourth, while Italy was fifth.
Greece, France, Albania, Ukraine and host Switzerland also made it to the top ten.
Following last year’s victory by non-binary artist Nema with the song “The Code”, Switzerland was given the role of host of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, and the competition is being held in St. Jakobshalle.
The hosts of the ceremony are Hazel Brugger, Michelle Hunziker and Sandra Studer. A total of 37 countries participated, and 26 of them made it to the final.
As is known, 10 countries qualified for the first semi-final held on Tuesday, May 13th: Albania, Estonia, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Sweden and Ukraine.
The countries from the second semi-final that qualified for the final are: Lithuania, Israel, Armenia, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Latvia, Malta and Greece.
Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa/picture alliance
