Austria's JJ wins Eurovision 2025, as Dutch entry Claude's strong performance takes 12th

Austria's Eurovision contestant, JJ, was crowned the winner of the annual event as the live broadcast of the competition stretched into the early hours of Sunday morning. Claude, the Dutch entry in Eurovision 2025, managed to take 12th place in the final results after his song drew a disappointing reception from the broadcast's viewers despite being well received by the live audience in Basel, Switzerland.

It means the 2026 edition of the contest will take place in Austria for the first time since 2015, the year after Conchita Wurst won the contest. JJ's song, Wasted Love, proved to be enormously popular with the national juries, and strong enough to win enough public votes to propel him past the runner-up, Israel, at the end of the evening. He was the third Eurovision winner for Austria after Wurst and Udo Jürgens.

Israel's Yuval Raphael finished in second with her song New Day Will Rise, scoring 357 points. Her performance was nearly interrupted by two protestors who were believed to be from the Netherlands. Her point total was just one better than Tommy Cash's Espresso Macchiato, which he performed as Estonia's representative. Sweden's entry, KAJ with Bara Bada Bastu, wound up in fourth with 321 points despite being the odds-on favorite to win.

Claude looked like he was a serious contender to wind up in a high position on the leaderboard, and potentially win the trophy, but he only received 42 points from the public vote. That was added to the 133 points he received from the national juries which had been enough to put him in fifth place.

He had delivered a nearly flawless dress rehearsal performance during the jury show on Friday at the St. Jakobshalle. Claude clearly enjoyed his performance and appeared confident, shouting "Thank you," in Dutch and English to the cheering audience on Friday.

Claude appeared surprised, confused and disappointed after finding out the number of points he won from the live vote. He was then cheered on by the crowd of 6,500 at the live broadcast, which led him to then give his own applause and thanks to them for their support.

Austria was in the lead with 258 points awarded from the national juries, which counted for 50 percent of the final rankings. Each of the 37 countries participating in Eurovision ranked their top ten of the 26 performers in the final. Their vote was based on the dress rehearsal on Friday, with each country's favorite getting 12 points, the runner-up getting 10 points, and the others earning up to 8 points depending on their place.

Aside from the 6,500 people gathered at the St. Jakobshalle, there were tens of thousands more across the street at the St. Jakob-Park. The 36,000 people at the home football ground of FC Basel erupted in a round of applause after Claude's performance. Extensive cheering could be heard in videos distributed by the Basler Zeitung.

The local newspaper said the Netherlands was clearly among the favorites based on the reaction Claude received in the stadium. Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof was also watching with pride on Sunday night.

After Claude's performance, Schoof wrote on social media that Claude represented the Netherlands extremely well. "I wish Claude much success tonight with his performance during the Song Contest final," he wrote before the final results were known.

At the St. Jakob-Park, there were also loud cheers for JJ after his performance of Wasted Love. They also reacted positively for Estonia's Tommy Cash with his rendition of Espresso Macchiato. But the audience "exploded" with enthusiasm for Finnish entry Erika Vikman, the newspaper reported. She was described as having a significant outsider chance for scoring the win.