The 69th Eurovision Song Contest, held on 17 May 2025 at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, delivered one of the most statistically volatile and artistically divided finals in the competition’s history. Thirty-seven nations entered; twenty-six progressed to the Grand Final. What followed exposed a widening chasm between professional juries and the viewing public, producing results that will reshape strategic thinking across European broadcasting for years to come.
Austria’s JJ, a 24-year-old countertenor at the Vienna State Opera, claimed victory with “Wasted Love” – a sweeping electro-ballad marrying operatic vocal acrobatics with contemporary synth-pop production. His tally of 436 points secured Austria’s third triumph, following Udo Jürgens in 1966 and Conchita Wurst in 2014. JJ has cited Wurst’s victory as the catalyst for his own Eurovision ambitions. But the headline figure masks a revealing story: JJ topped the jury vote with 258 points while managing only fourth in the televote with 178. The contest was decided not by mass appeal, but by the verdict of 184 music industry professionals spread across the continent.
This was a night defined by contradictions. Here we rank and examine every entry that made it to the final.
Austria’s “Wasted Love”: The Jury’s Champion
JJ’s victory was a masterclass in controlled emotional architecture. “Wasted Love” operated in the register of melancholic synth-pop – darker and more introspective than the average Eurovision winner, drawing comparisons to The Weeknd’s mid-career work while retaining a distinctly Central European sensibility. The staging was deliberately stark: sharp geometric shadows, isolating spotlighting, a performance anchored entirely by vocal precision rather than pyrotechnics.
Eight national juries – Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden – awarded JJ their maximum twelve points. His 258 jury points represented the highest jury score of the evening. The televote, however, placed him fourth behind Israel, Estonia, and Sweden. Austria’s win underscores a growing trend: vulnerability, paired with immaculate production, triumphs with professionals even as the public gravitates toward more visceral entertainment.
Israel’s Yuval Raphael: The Televote Queen
The runner-up position went to Israel’s Yuval Raphael, whose “New Day Will Rise” accumulated 357 points – missing the crown by a razor-thin margin. Raphael commanded the televote with 297 points, the highest public score of any act, yet the professional jury awarded her a comparatively modest 60 points, placing her 14th in the jury ranking.
“New Day Will Rise” was a classic power ballad updated with cinematic production – sweeping orchestration, dramatic crescendos, and vocal acrobatics reminiscent of a James Bond theme. The 237-point gap between her jury and televote scores represents one of the largest such disparities in Eurovision history, reigniting the debate about whether the jury system adequately reflects public taste. Raphael’s participation also drew protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators calling for Israel’s exclusion over the Gaza conflict, adding a geopolitical dimension that has shadowed the contest for several consecutive years.
Estonia’s Tommy Cash: Surrealist Hip-Hop Claims Third
Estonia’s Tommy Cash delivered the night’s most polarising performance with “Espresso Macchiato,” a dizzying collision of aggressive trap beats, absurdist high fashion, and relentless physical energy. Cash, a notorious provocateur known for boundary-pushing visuals and subversive internet-cult appeal, managed the difficult task of translating niche online fandom into mainstream continental success.
Finishing third with 356 points – just one behind Israel – Cash earned 258 televote points (second highest) and 98 from the juries. His near-victory in the televote signals a generational shift in what European audiences consider compelling live entertainment.
Sweden’s KAJ and Italy’s Lucio Corsi
Sweden’s KAJ secured fourth place with 321 points for “Bara Bada Bastu,” a jubilant, folk-infused celebration of Nordic sauna culture delivered with theatrical exuberance. Sweden – a nation with a notoriously clinical Eurovision approach – pivoted sharply from slick pop perfection, leaning into regional dialect, self-aware humour, and cultural specificity. The 195 televote points and 126 jury points reflected broad cross-demographic appeal.
Italy’s Lucio Corsi rounded out the top five with 256 points for “Volevo Essere Un Duro,” channelling the flamboyant spirit of 1970s glam rock. Corsi blended the androgynous aesthetic of Marc Bolan with the rich storytelling tradition of Italian cantautori. His 159 jury points confirmed Italy’s continued success with linguistically authentic entries – a strategy that has consistently yielded strong results since the country’s return to the contest in 2011.
Switzerland’s Historic Zero and the UK’s Continued Struggle
The most statistically extraordinary result belonged to Switzerland’s Zoë Më, who finished tenth with 214 points – entirely from the professional jury. She received a historically unprecedented zero from the televote. Her 214 jury points were the second highest of any act, yet not a single viewing member of the European public awarded her a point. The 214-point gap is the largest such disparity for any act receiving nul points in Eurovision history.
“Voyage” was an intimate, acoustically textured ballad that prioritised compositional sophistication over spectacle. Swiss media analysis suggested the staging – shot in a deliberately restrained Super 8 aesthetic – failed to provide the visual fireworks that televoting audiences reward. The result raises uncomfortable questions about whether the contest’s voting system adequately balances artistic merit with mass entertainment.
The United Kingdom’s Remember Monday endured a parallel humiliation, finishing 19th with 88 points – all from the jury. Like Switzerland, they received zero from the televote, making the UK the second consecutive year’s entry to suffer this fate after Olly Alexander in 2024. Their “What The Hell Just Happened?” was performed by the first girl group to represent the UK since 1999. The 88 jury points represented a near-doubling of the UK’s 2024 jury score, suggesting professional assessment of British entries is improving even as the European public remains unmoved.
Iceland’s VÆB, conversely, received zero from the juries but managed 33 televote points – an inversion that further illustrates the gulf between professional and popular taste.
Greece’s Klavdia and France’s Louane
Greece’s Klavdia delivered one of the evening’s most acclaimed performances with “Asteromata,” finishing sixth with 231 points. The staging, directed by Fokas Evangelinos, was a triumph of symbolic minimalism – Klavdia’s movement toward a rock formation represented a solitary journey toward the light, while a dramatic costume change from black to white evoked catharsis. The BBC described her semi-final rendition as “simply enchanting,” and the performance earned 126 televote points alongside 105 from the jury. Greece’s 85.6% domestic television audience share during the performance was one of the highest Eurovision viewership figures in the country’s history.
France’s Louane, a César Award-winning actress, finished seventh with 230 points for “maman” – a deeply personal ballad about motherhood, performed entirely in French. Her 180 jury points were the third highest of the evening, confirming France’s strategy of sending linguistically authentic, artistically credible entries continues to resonate with professionals. The song debuted at the Stade de France during half-time of a Six Nations rugby match, demonstrating a savvy cross-platform promotional approach.
Albania’s Shkodra Elektronike: The Breakout Story
Albania’s eighth-place finish with 218 points – tied with Ukraine – represented the country’s highest ever Eurovision point total. Shkodra Elektronike, the duo of producer Kolë Laca and vocalist Beatriçe Gjergji, performed “Zjerm” in the Gheg Albanian dialect, blending Balkan folk instrumentation with modern electronic production. Their self-described “Post Immigrant Pop” aesthetic – both artists grew up in Italy before returning to their Shkodër roots – offered a compelling narrative of cultural displacement and reclamation.
The 173 televote points reflected enormous popular enthusiasm, while the 45 jury points suggested the professional establishment was less convinced. Nevertheless, Albania’s result marks a significant breakthrough and validates the country’s increasingly bold approach to Eurovision selection through Festivali i Këngës.
The Remaining Entries: A Kaleidoscopic Field
The remaining songs each contributed to the contest’s characteristically eclectic atmosphere. Ukraine’s Ziferblat finished ninth with 218 points for “Bird of Pray,” a haunting alternative rock piece that won the first semi-final and exemplified Ukraine’s unmatched ability to export sonically adventurous, emotionally charged music. Finland’s Erika Vikman, who generated enormous pre-contest buzz with “ICH KOMME,” finished 11th with 196 points – a strong result for an act whose Euro-disco anthem temporarily transformed the Basel arena into a subterranean rave.
The Netherlands’ Claude took 12th with 175 points, Latvia’s Tautumeitas 13th with 158, and Poland’s Justyna Steczkowska 14th with 156, buoyed by strong Eastern European bloc support. Germany’s Abor & Tynna finished 15th with 151 points. Lithuania’s Katarsis placed 16th with 96, Malta’s Miriana Conte 17th with 91, and Norway’s Kyle Alessandro 18th with 89. Armenia’s PARG finished 20th with 72 points, Portugal’s NAPA 21st with 50, and Luxembourg – making its welcome return – placed 22nd with 47 points for Laura Thorn’s French-language chanson. Denmark’s Sissal also earned 47 in 23rd, Spain’s Melody finished 24th with 37, and San Marino’s Gabry Ponte brought up the rear in 26th with 27 points.
A Contest in Creative Flux
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest revealed a competition at a crossroads. The voting data tells a clear story: professional juries and the European public are increasingly operating in parallel rather than convergent universes. Austria won because the jury system exists; Israel nearly won because the televote system exists. Switzerland’s zero from the public and 214 from the jury is not merely a curiosity – it is evidence of a structural tension that will continue to generate controversy.
Yet the artistic quality of the twenty-six Grand Final entries was, by most critical assessments, among the highest in recent memory. The days of dismissing Eurovision as kitsch spectacle are definitively over. It has evolved into a premier platform for European musical innovation, where avant-garde provocateurs like Tommy Cash compete alongside classically trained countertenors and folk-electronic fusionists from Tirana.
As the confetti was swept from the floor of the St. Jakobshalle, Vienna was announced as the host city for 2026. The contest heads there on 12, 14, and 16 May, with the expectation that JJ’s victory will encourage future entries to pursue introspective songwriting and intelligent, minimalist staging. But the simultaneous success of acts from Estonia, Sweden, Italy, and Albania ensures that the contest will never lose its beating heart of theatricality, eccentricity, and unadulterated entertainment. Eurovision 2025 was a triumph of Music diversity – and a reminder that in a continent riven by political division, a three-minute pop song retains an astonishing capacity to unite, provoke, and delight in the broader Culture.
