Austria wins the Eurovision Song Contest, Luxembourg in 22nd out of 26

At the 69th Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, 26 countries competed against each other after eleven countries had already left in the two semi -finals on May 13 and 15. On site, 6,500 spectators watched the spectacle in the St. Jakobshalle, in front of the screens there were around 150 million.

The moderators Michelle Hunziker, Sandra Studer and Hazel Brugger led elegantly and with humor through the evening. After an evening full of emotional ballads, classic Eurodance pop numbers and unusual productions, the winner was determined: Opera singer JJ, born Johannes Pietsch (24), from Austria with the song « Wasted Love ». He won with 436 points. Accordingly, the song is a mixture of pop and opera. Staging underlines the drama of the song: JJ is on a boat while a storm rages. This is not surprising, because the young man from Vienna was acted as a favorite by the bookmakers in advance.

Laura Thorn started in second place for Luxembourg. The charming singer only arrives mediocre with her Chanson both with the audience and the juries and reaches the 22nd place out of a total of 26. The day before her big appearance, she had already made her goal to reach the final. Only the starting position at the very beginning did not find it optimal because she feared that the audience could otherwise forget. Did your fear have come true? The disappointment was definitely to be seen on the television screen.

Voting: Who does Luxembourg get points from?

In total, Luxembourg only got 47 points, 23 of them from the jury and 24 from the audience. There were no neighboring country, but from the Netherlands, from Ukraine, from Israel and Austria.

The clear jury winner is Austria, followed by Switzerland, France and Italy. All in all, the awarding of the points was very mixed, as many countries than ever got twelve points, in total there were 13 countries.

But that’s half the battle. If you win, you decide the tele voting, the results of which announced three and a half hours after the start of the event and then added to the points of the jury rating. And then the order gets mixed again. The winner of the heart was Israel, followed by Estonia and Sweden. But it is sufficient for the final victory for Austria. Second is Israel. In the end, it is enough for Luxembourg for the 22nd place, neighbor France reaches 7th place and Germany reaches the 15th

An evening full of emotions

Captivating ballads delivered the Netherlands, Switzerland and our neighboring country France. The Swiss Zoë Më in the light and took us on a journey to more humanity with her dreamy chanson « Voyage ». With poetic lines such as « Les Fleurs Sont Plus Belles quand tu les Arroses » (« The flowers are more beautiful when you pour them ») instead of cutting them off, she hits the core of her message. And she shows that host countries can convince again after their victory in the previous year.

Estonia created a good atmosphere. For the Baltic Land, Tommy Cash performed with the song « Espresso Macchiato ». In this way, he caused moods with Italy in advance, which felt on the tie through the supposed clichés. The bizarre staging made the audience smile: four dancers disguised as security staff wore him on hands, while a café with the inscription « Winners Café » was projected in the background. In any case, the Estonian does not lack self -confidence.

Sweden also made the hall shake. Instead of the typical, highly polished Swedish pops, the Finnish-born comedy group Kaj presented a winking hit number with « Bara Bada Bastu » (« Simply go to the sauna »). A complete sauna scenery developed on stage. And even if most people in the audience don’t understand Swedish, they were able to grab the song title.

Erika Vikman from the neighboring country of Finland did the same. The entire St. Jakobshalle in Basel roared the song title « I come ». If you are wondering what the otherwise sung song is about: it is about the female lust that the singer believes is still a taboo subject.

Germany in turn invited the hall to dance. Abor and Tynna, born in Vienna, competed for Germany after the preliminary decision organized by Stefan Raab « Chef’s matter ESC“Had won. It was a modern electropop song that could also run in German clubs. Above all, the“ Balalala ”refrain goes straight into the ear.

Captivating ballads delivered the Netherlands, Switzerland and our neighboring country France. The Swiss Zoë Më in the light took us with her dreamy chanson « Voyage » on a trip to more humanity. With poetic lines such as « Les Fleurs Sont Plus Belles Quand Tu Les Arroses » (« The flowers are more beautiful when you pour them ») instead of cutting them off, she hit the core of her message. She also showed that host countries can convince again after their victory in the previous year.

The entire ESC week was puzzled whether it would appear in the final. The Canadian singer Celine Dion was the last winner for Switzerland before Nemo 2024. In 1988 she conquered the hearts of the audience at the ESC in Dublin with the song « Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi ». In the first semi -final, she was switched on by video count and regretted that she could not appear. The background: Dion is ill from Stiff-Person-Syndrome, a rare neurological disease. After a long time, the singer performed publicly for the first time last year at the Olympic Games.

But then there was a lot of discussion about it on social media. Plane spotters thought they had seen the private jet of Celine Dion in Basel. But neither in the rehearsals nor in the evening itself occurred.

And so an evening full of highlights ends. The Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Austria in May next year. Where exactly, however, this will only be decided in the coming months.

LW editor Sabrina Backes from Basel reports on the Eurovision Song Contest.