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Austria has won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Wasted Love from JJ. The 69th editite of the international song festival took place this year in Basel, Switzerland. The Dutch entry Claude finished in twelfth place with his song Cis life.
Titelf favorite Sweden did not know how to fulfill it with an ode to the sauna. Israel finished in second place due to the high number of points of the public.
When assigning the points by the professional juries, Austria was already considering the other participants. And added with the televoters, JJ received a total of 436 points.
With his enormous vocal reach, JJ managed to put the audience into ecstasy. He is a countertenor and got in Wasted Love All the space to show his qualities. The song is an absolute roller coaster ride with, among other things, pop and hardcore.
View here the moment that Austria wins the festival, and Swipe to see the performance again:
Austria has won the festival for the third time. Conchita Wurst won the last time, in 2014 with the song Rise Like a Phoenix. In 1966 Won Udo Jürgens Met Thank you, darling.
“Thank you, Europe. Thank you very much,” said an emotional JJ when he received the prize from last year’s winner, Nemo.
View a summary of the evening here:
This was the final of the Songfestival
For the Netherlands, it was Claude’s turn of the twelfth. He managed to get 42 points from the televoters and in total Claude was able to attract 175 points.
He can look back on an almost flawless action except for a small discussion at the beginning. “I enjoyed everything,” said the singer on Instagram. “The last performance is over. And it was great! I was sooo nervous that I confused two words and I was angry with myself. But hey it is real and That’s life.”
Look here the performance of Claude:
Emotional action of Claude and Loud Applause
The most loaded entry of this edition was Israel. Yuval Raphael brought the ballad New Day Will Rise Playing. Although the song is well put together, the chance of winning was very small in advance. Especially from the public jury, the country received many points, which made it lead for a long time, until the public points for Austria became known and Israel finally finished second.
Paint activists
Several activists tried to disrupt Israel’s performance, reports the Eurodivisie-Blog ESC Pakt. Two activists had smuggled red paint and tried to reach the stage. That did not work, but photos show that several spectators have received paint in themselves. According to the organizing broadcaster SRG SSR, the two have been stopped by security. They were put out of the room and transferred to the police. During the performance, a number of people left the room and a small group turned the back to the stage.
A number of countries had indicated in advance that they were not comfortable with the participation of Israel because of the war in Gaza. For example, the Spanish public broadcaster TVE spoke out against the participation of Israel during the second semifinal. The broadcaster received a warning from organizer EBU last night not to give a political commentary during the final, but TVE did not stick to it. And in Basel there were various protests last night.
Organizer Ebu, however, remained behind the choice to make Israel perform. Ebu also had banned other participants to make political statements, just like last year.
Ode on the sauna
Titelf favorite Sweden did not know how to fulfill it this year. With 321 points, the country came in fourth place with the still infectious song about the sauna.
“The clock is, it’s time. All worries will disappear. It is the best medicine for body and soul: four walls covered with wood,” was the translated text of Just swim sauna. With a cheerful accordion melody and a pounding beat, the trio Kaj was unable to convince the audience.
To the sauna with Sweden
Stained
One of the most striking songs this year came from Estonia. Tommy Cash lusted the final with some humor, an absurd dance and the infectious Stained.
During the performance it seemed that something went wrong on stage, but it turned out to be part of the show. Because as the real connoisseur knows: there is little room for spontaneity at the Songfestival.
The public favorite received 258 points from the public and managed to win a total of 356 points.
A cup of espresso macchiato with tommy cash
Furthermore, striking: for the second year in a row, Great Britain did not get any point of the televoters. The Trio Remember Monday seemed unaffected and waved cheerfully while the audience waved to them. Switzerland, too, did not get any point from the public, while it finished first last year.
And do you want to read everything around the final again? Here you will find the Songfestival Liveblog.
