On Saturday, JJ lifted the glass microphone trophy as the champion of Eurovision 2025. There’s been very little time to rest since for the Austrian team as they begin preparing for next year’s event.
The “Wasted Love” singer has shared some suggestions of his own on how he would like the contest to change next year — specifically, that Israel should not be there.
JJ: “It’s very disappointing to see Israel still participating”
During Eurovision itself, all contestants were required to sign the code of conduct that prohibited them from speaking poorly about any of the other competing nations — to uphold the unifying spirit of the contest.
Now that the final confetti has fallen, JJ — full name Johannes Pietsch — has told Spanish newspaper El País some of his more candid thoughts.
“It’s very disappointing to see Israel still participating in the competition,” he said.
“I would like Eurovision to be held in Vienna next year, without Israel. But the ball is in the EBU’s court. We, the artists, can only speak out on the matter.”
The Austrian opera singer’s comments align with those of Switzerland’s 2024 winner Nemo. They have also previously supported calls for Israel to be excluded from the contest over the nation’s actions in Gaza, where more than 53,000 people have been killed since October 2023.
Dozens of other past Eurovision participants signed an open letter to the EBU ahead of the 2025 event, calling on Eurovision organisers to remove Israel from the contest. Later additions to the list — including Spain’s Blanca Paloma and Australia’s Montaigne — saw the number of signatories reach 78. The artists note that “by continuing to platform the representation of the Israeli state, the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes”.
Multiple international organisations have accused Israel of committing war crimes and acts of genocide during the fighting, which began after Hamas carried out an attack in southern Israel.
Update: You can hear more comments from JJ on this matter in the below interview with Spanish outlet ABC.
Austria claimed the Eurovision 2025 trophy in a nail-biting finale with Israel.
The latter’s victory in the public televote has raised concerns amongst several participating countries over the fairness of the current system.
During his conversation with El País, JJ added his voice to the growing list of those troubled with how things are currently run:
“[Eurovision] needs to make changes to the voting system,” the singer notes.
“There should be greater transparency regarding the televoting. This year, everything was very strange about it.”
The broadcasters in Spain, Iceland, Belgium, Finland, and Ireland have all either requested audits into their nation’s televoting and/or queried the present voting methods — particularly that allowing viewers to cast up to 20 votes creates room for coordinated campaigns and political influence, distancing Eurovision from its cultural and artistic focus.
An investigation by the EBU’s independent fact-checking network, Spotlight, showed how a government-linked Israeli agency orchestrated such a digital ad campaign to increase votes for Israel’s entry in this year’s contest.
“I tried to sneak a Pride flag in during the final”
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, JJ aims to use his newfound notoriety to stand up for queer rights:
“I’m going to seize the opportunity and use this huge platform like Eurovision to stand up for rights for the entire queer community and to ensure we have more equality. There’s still a huge stigma surrounding us, and unfortunately, Europe is becoming increasingly conservative, taking steps backward. It’s very, very disappointing, and something needs to be done about it.”
We very nearly saw this support in action at the Eurovision 2025 grand final.
A big story this year was the change in flag policy that prohibited contestants from carrying any flag that wasn’t the one of their country — including Pride flags.
Pietsch attempted to battle this regression of flag acceptance in Basel:
“Although it comforted me to know the audience could do so, I tried to sneak a flag in during the final. But they caught me. I had it in my pants pocket, and someone from the organisation saw what I was carrying. Just before going on stage, they told me: ‘That’s not your country’s flag, you can’t take it out.’ I almost succeeded.”
Born into an Austrian-Filipina household, JJ is the first Eurovision winner of Asian descent.
After spending a happy childhood in Dubai, the family later returned to Vienna. This allowed him to watch Eurovision for the first time and fully embrace his queerness:
“It wasn’t until we moved back to Vienna that I was able to compare and realise what it was really like to live more freely as a queer person.”
Austria’s 2014 winner, Conchita Wurst, has long been a role model to JJ. As has 2024 champion Nemo:
“Both have broken codes, as Nemo’s song says. The fact that during the semi-finals I was compared to two people who had won Eurovision always seemed like a good sign to me.
“Although, I’m not as similar to Nemo as they say. My song is classical music with some modern elements, and theirs is a modern song with some classical elements.”
I think when you exclude Israel, after the horrible attack on October 7th 2023, you should also exclude Ukraine. That country was also attacked (by Russia).
Better option: every country that is in an active war, can not participate.
That’s two winners in a row. This is getting really embarrassing for the EBU.
A new controversy in Austria as the governor of Lower Austria, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, a center-right politician from the OVP party openly slams JJ for his anti-Israel participation statement. I disagree with her interference on the matter as I believe it’s ORF and other people from the arts and entertainment industry in Austris who should have responded in favor or against his statements. When there is complete silence and nobody proposes a nuanced view or challenges JJ’s choice of words, that leaves the door for politicians to step right in.
I’m soooooo sick and tired of these cry babies already ? When Moldova received almost 300 points from the public in 2022 which rescued them from near last place according to the juries, no one questioned the voting system. And that’s only one random example.
Enough with this pathetic prejudice. Eventually this is a SONG contest.
That year Moldova had an amazing song performed by a very experienced 2-time TOP10 band that almost every Eurovision fan loves very much. This year’s Israeli song was a 3-minute cliché. It’s like comparing apples & pears. Juries in 2022 were just tasteless.
moldova was a fun and catchy song that the audience liked. israel’s song is a sob story and if it was from any other country, it wouldn’t have come anywhere near top 5 in the televote, let alone win it
Exactly and Israel’s song was average at best , dull as dish water. The votes weren’t for the song as it’s non showing in all streaming charts and downloads show
Moldova’s song was jury poison/televote bait. They also performed right after a bunch of slow songs. So, maybe higher than expected but not too surprising (plus they are a small country with little influence).
It boggles the mind how a member of the LGBTQ+ community cannot support Israel’s fight for Western values. The way things are looking, in a couple of decades he won’t be allowed to raise a pride flag anywhere in Austria.
That’s their problem, I guess. None of them wants to listen
Just wait, for extremely religious Israeli citizens women shouldnt be allowed to sing for a male audience. Netanyahu is siding with These groups to stay in power. I do not share these values.
Why ! Didn’t Israel vote for him! Already moaning when fresh winner to celebrate his victory. They’ve already banned Russia and now Israel and tomorrow another slowly kill Eurovision, isn’t the contest meant to be a bridge of love away from war, isn’t it suppose to bring countries together at least once a year to see the colours and beauty of United nations! Keep politic out of it please ?
A new day will rise is a political song, it’s hard to keep politics outside in this case
The only way Israel doesn’t participate is if they EBU bans them and the only way that the EBU bans them is if multiple countries threaten to withdraw. So far, no one is doing that. They’re only asking for clarity on the votes. Meaning Israel will be back next year that’s the reality. So next year be ready for another jury winner winning the contest. Oh, and the year after that too.
This is early days.We’re only almost a week after the final. We have a long time to go before we see any country actually having the guts to either withhold their membership dues or Eurovision participation to pressure the EBU to block Israel from Eurovision 2026. The voting system needs to reform regardless of whether Israel participates in the future contests or not. Somebody could still distortionary benefit from the system as it is now, even if Israel is hypothetically out. We can work on multiple things at once.
Sounds like there’s a jury problem
Thank god and for the sake of keeping Eurovision afloat .
No pride flag but Nemo s outfit ok ??
OK ok ….
Yes, Nemo’s outfit was spectacular and not made of a Pride flag ( could have been an idea?). Very telling and daring, very hard to diggest for the wider ESC audience. The productionteam of the swiss broadcaster SRG SSR must have known what they wanted to created at the ESC 25 Final. I was very much engaged with their production of the 3 shows. They showed the world much of their lands. From the old days in tradition as in the modern word of 2day. Hence the choice for this niche very avant garde queer piece of Art by Nemo,… Read more »
For a group of people who beg for inclusivity, trying to pick and choose which countries participate is not very inclusive and hypocritical. The Isreali singer is not guilty for her country’s sins. We must separate the person and their talents from the actions of their government.
It’s not so much that as the fact that the double standards with Israel and Russia are apparent. Also, we can’t separate the singer form the government since there was governmental interference with the voting through the ad campaign.
Please learn history and geopolitics before comparing Israel and Russia.. I’m mean come on.. it’s almost a brain washed comparison
If any comparison to Israel is to be made, it should be with Ukraine!
I agree, banning Israel isn’t banning Yuval it’s banning KAN and the Government
if I didn’t know Eurovision was a song contest articles like this would make me think Eurovision was a political event.
With this big black cloud hanging over the EBU, we shouldn’t forget what the Eurovision Song Contest is all about…
… Celine Dion.
15 minutes of Celine at the Swiss national final 1989, just days before she started work on her first ever English language album. Let’s just pretend this was last Saturday night in Basel. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/xlEb2cKMbYo
Just realized that Austria winning the juries/Israel winning the televote is a repeat of Lisbon 2018.
Cesar Sampson has been avenged.
I had to look up who represented Austria in 2018. I only remembered Netta and Eleni.
Thought. Devil’s advocate. Not an argument, but…
The televote is rarely decided on song quality. Voting to show support for Israel is just as valid as voting for Spain because you like Chanel’s booty hypnotic.
Ahaha, yeah. I suppose audience voting decisions will always have the potential to be completely arbitrary, no matter how many votes are available or what system is used. Tommy Cash’s result is another case study on this too. There probably needs to be a case study: “How Tommy Cash almost won the public vote in ESC 2025.”
Plus, could you imagine what would happen with the fandom if Israel actually sent their booty hypnotic next year? (Ohh dear, I better offer too many good ideas 😀 )
Had it been Tommy and Yuval on the last split screen, that would have shown how absurd this whole discussion is. I was talking to people during the week who thought Israel had a lovely song and would have been a worthy winner. Important to let everyone have their say.
voting more than normal for someone because you really like the song =/= voting an obscene amount of times to support a certain governments actions regardless of the quality of the song.
I’m sorry but can you prove the Spanish government endorsed people with money around the globe to vote for Chanel’s booty call? I’m afraid you’re missing the point – THAT one country has an organized activity endorsing people to vote while doing it with government’s involvement for a couple of years now. It is an obvious breach of rules of apolitical nature of the contest. If THAT one country is allowed to use official country’s resources, it means the contest is between 36 national broadcasters and 1 country, so the EBU is in wrong saying that doesn’t mean politics is… Read more »
Like it matters what he thinks.
Maybe it doesn’t, but it is okay for him to state his opinion and for those interested to hear it.
It’s not the Olympics, so how about getting rid of the flag parade altogether? It would cut some of the running time the Swedes have added to the contest.
Nooooooo!
The flag parade should stay, but not be identical every year.
It started in 2013 as we know it, but all the artists parades out before the songs began as far back as 1960.
I say that already for many years, what’s the purpose of that flag parade?
What’s the purpose of anything?
The flag parade inspires pride and sparks joy.
If the flag parade was introduced by another broadcaster than SVT you wouldn’t demanding this.
Did you guys see that EVERYBODY who did any content with Parg (Armenia’s singer), didn’t somehow receive ANY jury votes from Azerbaijan?
Go figure..
Azeri jury is the worst
Maybe Israel should decide to not participate in the next edition…Until everything be more calm…
I liked Austria, but it was not my favourite. Then I was incredibly thankful to JJ for saving us from the alternative. Now JJ has become a Eurovision hero, showing incredible courage, and is already feeling the backlash. We can’t leave JJ isolated here folks, he speaks for so many of us. Time for all fans to write physical letters, with stamps and all, to the EBU. JJ we stand with you.
It is time to say clearly, opposing Netanyahu*s inhumane policy against the people of Palestine is not antisemitic. I wouldn*t compare Israel to Russia, but I respect JJ*s stance. I saw a woman on Austrian TV sieving moulded and insec infested flour. Thats what she said : I Hope you will never have to eat food Like this.
It’s a song contest. if he doesn’t like the politics or is unwilling to abide by the contest’s code he shouldn’t participate. His broadcaster is right. Is comments are an absolute disgrace. Hopefully the EBU will act. It works both ways sunshine !
No big pride flags please, as it confuses the watchers and is disrespectful.
But a small, 20x20cm would be alright. And ofcourse maybe EBU should change Isralel to Bosnia or Bulgaria.
Disrespectful. To whom?
EBU should invite back: Hungary, Romania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Monaco, Macedonia
About the pride flag. I agree that artists shouldn’t go on flag parade with ONLY lgbtq flags. I would find it sad to see my country being represented on final and not see that countries flag.
Not allowing them to bring it in arena is a bit ridiculous. It’s not a hate crime 😀
well said JJ
About the pride flag, I hope some country sends a song called “Rainbow” or smth like that next ed
New Rainbow Will Rise After The Hurricane
Your my Rainbow in the sky
My colors in the gray
The only song my piano ever plays
Unfortunately, they are already forcing him to back down. ORF made it clear that JJ’s statements have no connection to the broadcaster and of course pointed to the EBU as the “sole institution deciding who gets to participate”. And the EBU in turn continues to gaslight: “It is not our job to compare conflicts”. This is going to repeat every year from now on with Israel being on the final split screen against the last hope. Time for Sweden’s 8th win next year, I guess.
why Sweden???? it could also any other country. Eurovision is more then alone Sweden
I hope Israel will not participate next year just for the sake that we will all find something else to blame.. it’s getting ridiculous how way too easily this topic is been mumbled
It’s my favorite part when LGBTQ friends using terms like war crime and genocide widely and so easily before understanding the meaning and pointing it not to whom needed – wish him genuinely all the best and I’m glad Austria won (though preferred Sweden 10 times more).. but you just can’t reclaim the ESC should be non-political and constantly speak about Israel and remind us how political it eventually is
Another point.. it’s outrageous how much credit everyone has given to Israel with the votes.. pls there are bit more concerning things in the world to deal with
I’m beginning to wonder if Vienna, or Austria, will want to stage the contest in 2026. We might be all off to Tallinn.
No chance. We love to host events like Eurovision.
I would love to see eurovision on Tallinn but your scenario is a bit delulu 😀 Austria went for this victory, why wouldn’t they host it?
Because of the very issue under discussion and all the associated problems. The chalice is poisoned.
It is not. JJ is entitled to speak his mind, and I Trust the audience to respect his personal views. If thats to difficult to grasp, forget ESC.
Despite EBU confirming the big voting campaign organized by Israel to beg for votes and obviously manipulate the overall televote results, there are still people put there saying that Israel deserved that televote 1st place and should have win. You really feel no shame indeed. Be it for political reasons of just for the sake of a fair competition, Israel should be out of this competition. End of discussion.
Who are you to decide?
The EBU will have to decide wether paying for ads is “manipulation” or not. So please stop spreading your misinformation.
Why did he say that Israel “provoked” the war? That is definitely not true. He is free to call the actions of the Israeli military a crime, but one should not pretend that October 7 did not happen. These murders and hunts were not an “act of liberation”.
Go back a few decades, I believe in you!
The war started much before Oct 7th. You fool no one.
You are clearly blind to the fact that Israel has been illegally occupying Palestinian land and oppressing and in some cases violently attacking the Palestinian people for decades before October 7th. What happened on October 7th was of course abhorrent. No humane person would say otherwise. But that doesn’t give Israel the right to murder over 50,000 people, destroy a land that will take decades to re-build and starve a population of over 2 million. Israel has committed several war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people and it seems pretty clear that the majority of people (myself… Read more »
Shame on you.
It really says a lot that all you have to say in response to me literally giving you the facts is “Shame on you.” And don’t actually have any real evidence to back your own points up.
This
Amen
Factual falsehoods mixed with personal projections. What a wish-wash. I could have agreed with some of your statements had you not manipulated the facts and the numbers in such a juvenile and irresponsible manner.
sadly that’s what you get when you get all your news from tiktok, instagram and other social media plattforms…
Started in 1947 with colonial land grab, not in October 2023.
Fiction. Israel is not a colonial project and rewriting history by new historians and charlatans like you.
The ban on Pride flags has gotten overshadowed by controversy about Israel’s participation, but I think it is an outrageous decision by EBU
EBU only cares about money, nothing else. If their biggest sponsor – Israel – told them to remove the flags, they removed the flags.
its probably to get Tukiye back!
Why am I downvoted for stating the truth? I find removing the flags disgusting just like majority of you.
That didn’t happen. Israel is not to blame for everything wrong with the EBU. Israel gave us our first trans winner. They sent MBC.
“There should be greater transparency regarding the televoting.” So much hypocrisy… what about transparency in the jury voting? Is everyone going to pretend that Israel’s song was deliberately tanked by the juries?
Of course it was but juries had to do that to save the contest as it seems EBU is ready to sink it. All in all, Israel objectively deserved a top 5 but certainly not the first place with the televote. As long as Israel will be in the contest and will manipulate the televote, I supporting juries to tank their entry.
Oh finally – the first person to say ANYTHING about the quality of the Israeli song! (I’m not going into whether Israel should participate, just noting that so far I don’t remember anyone here mentioning that, after all, it was a reasonably good song.)
Yeah, 15 out of the 180 jurors ranked Israel 25th. One of the Belgian Jurors is a Pro-Palestinian activist. Everything’s out in the open. The sun is the best disinfectant.
What a loser. Audience voted twice more for Yuval and he “questions” the voting strategy. Ridiculous. You should be humble and grateful.
Yuval is a brave lady who stood against pure evil and survived a horrible massacre. Her only crime was going to a music festival.
Free speech mate!
No
Well said.
Well said. Thank you for some common sense against the deluded.
I don’t really see that much hate against Yuval personally. She’s a great singer and her story is very touching, nobody should have to go through something like that. Doesn’t mean the votes should be manipulated in her favour. That’s fair to nobody, not even Yuval herself because many people aren’t voting for her because they like her voice or her song. They just want Israel to win because it’s Israel.
”audience” you are so funny. tell another one
A minus 50 markdown…quite an achievement
Another corrupted politically correct artist..
Brainwashed to hate and doesn’t even know it..
Maybe JJ shouldn’t have win at all..
Israel is being demonized for defending itself! Absurd!
Not quite defending itself now though is it?!
Man you won out of love from people. Show no hate. Israeli citizens are not Israeli government stop preaching hate
KING.
Well done JJ much respect!
I like him more and more.
If you respect a person who breaks their principles for fame and money, it says a lot about you.
Say that to Yuval
She doesn’t do it for money and fame like him. Somehow, before Eurovision, Israel didn’t bother him, obviously he had to first gain money and fame and only then could he speak negatively about Israel. He is the definition of having no principles.
You are the definition of having no principles considering you advocate for Israel. That’s low considering all they’re doing.
You are in absolutely no position to lecture anyone about having principals.
She doesn’t do it for the fame but she does it for the propaganda…and that’s worse.
I applaud JJ!
He just gets better and better. So outspoken and so on point. At least one important Austrian speaks up against Israel. I hope this will echo here.
what a sad person
This is an article about JJ. Not you sweetheart
OK, now we finally get to hear this year’s artists over Israel, you can stop your complaining
“the EBU is normalising and whitewashing its crimes”
“It’s very disappointing to see Israel still participating”
Not enough for you to boycott Eurovision. I guess going to Eurovision was more important.
Well, if he hadn’t gone, Eurovision would have been the one to go. Under.
If artists and countries choose to leave and boycott Eurovision, there will be no voices left to protest and fight for what’s right. Boycott won’t change anything, the active members and influential artists have a soft power to move forward the contest.
of course he had no problem participating this year with Israel, but when it ended and he won he complains about Israel in Eurovision to get attention. He could have said before Eurovision that he won’t participate if there is Israel, but of course people like him lack dignity… Another princess of queer drama
Sorry you misunderstood what he meant. He’s not complaining about the attention that Israel gets. He’s happy that he won and he would like Eurovision in Vienna without Israel. It’s shows very clear that JJ gets more attention and love than Yuval ,even though Israel provoked voters on YouTube to vote for Israel .
You are right!
Boycotting is a single strategy out of many, and it’s not always the best one. He chose instead to participate and use his resulting platform to speak out about the competition which is another completely valid strategy. Participants of a system are completely within their right to speak out about the injustices of that system.
If everybody against israel stopped watching and competing in eurovision it would start becoming a far right contest.
EBU has messed with the wrong broadcaster I’m afraid. RTVE and Spanish media seem to be leaking everything at the point we’re gonna end up known even the color of the undewear of the executive board
and im so here for it! Vamos espana!!
Blue and white?
The wrong broadcaster and the wrong fandom. Spanish fans (even those who are not fans) want to know everything about this. And, sorry for EBU, we will do it for sure.
JJ thank you so much for speaking up! This year I see even more reaction towards the Israeli participation at ESC. And also a general shift against Israel around the world as well. The people always stood against them and the governments are finally been given no choice but to listen.
But small victories first: Ban Israel from Eurovision and all global events
Source please?
JJ wasting no time riding on the wings of the hottest trend now. He may just as well get his wish come true once the EU enforces sactions on Israel. Once this goes into effect, the EBU will follow suit.
Oh uh, s***’s about to hit the fan.