Wasted Love
"Wasted Love" is the debut single by Austrian singer JJ. The song was released on 6 March 2025 and was written by JJ himself alongside Teodora Špirić and Thomas Thurner. It in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, where it won the contest with 436 points. In the process, the song became the first winning song for Austria since Conchita Wurst's victory in 2014 with "Rise Like a Phoenix".
It is described by JJ as a song that describes his own personal experiences with unrequited love and its conflicting feelings between pain and beauty. The song drew positive reception in most critical reviews, receiving praise for its musical composition and JJ's vocal abilities. After the song's victory in the contest, "Wasted Love" enjoyed commercial success in numerous countries, peaking at number one in its native Austria and Greece, within the top five in Lithuania and Switzerland, and within the top ten in five additional countries. It was also certified gold by IFPI Austria.
Background and composition
"Wasted Love" was written by Johannes Pietsch, Teodora Špirić, and Thomas Thurner, with production handled by Thurner, Pele Loriano, and Wojciech Kostrzewa. Špirić had in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 alongside Salena with the song "Who the Hell Is Edgar?". According to Kleine Zeitung, the song was created within one day in the summer of 2024. The song was released on 6 March 2025.In press statements and interviews, JJ stated that the song was inspired by his own experiences with unrequited love in 2024, describing the feeling as "floating on a fragile paper boat at sea" that disintegrates. He further added that the feeling was "undeniably beautiful in this naïve devotion. Because in the end, it is beautiful to simply be able to loveno matter how wasted." He later added that he wanted to emphasise the importance of love for humanity, stating in a press conference, "Love wins. In my song I was talking about how love is wasted, but love wins. Spread love, forget hate, love is the strongest force."
Music video and promotion
Along with the song's release, an accompanying music video directed by Vesely Marek was released on the same day. The video itself was filmed in numerous locations across Austria, including a pine forest near Wiener Neustadt, a diving school, a studio in Lower Austria, and a theater in Baden, with filming on the video taking place over the course of five days in February 2025. In a statement given to Wiwibloggs, Marek stated that the video was split into five acts, detailing a "visual journey into the deep abyss of unrequited love". One shot within the music video features JJ placing a paper boat into a body of water, which proceeds to sink.To promote the song, JJ participated in various Eurovision pre-parties before the contest throughout the months of March and April 2025, including Eurovision in Concert on 5 April, the London Eurovision Party on 13 April, and Pre-Party ES on 19 April. On 11 April, JJ released a duet mashup of "Wasted Love" and "Rise Like a Phoenix", the of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014, with its performer Conchita Wurst.
Critical reception
Austrian media and personalities
's Klemens Patek described the song as a "well-rounded song without seeming too contrived" compared to other songs in the contest, praising the musical composition of the song's verses. Der Standard's Ljubiša Tošić commended JJ's vocal abilities and the song's high energy musical composition, stating that the song was a "perfect fit for the Song Contest". Andi Knoll, the Austrian commentator for Eurovision, stated to Kurier that he thought the song's classical musical composition was "incredibly Austrian", adding, "It's an opera in three minutes. And although it's so demanding, it's also so catchy." "Wasted Love" received positive reception from multiple past Austrian Eurovision contestants, including Thomas Forstner, Alf Poier, and Vincent Bueno.Eurovision-related and international media
In a Wiwibloggs review containing several reviews from several critics, the song was rated 7.87 out of 10 points, earning fifth out of the 37 songs competing in that year's Eurovision in the site's annual ranking that year. ESC BeatNPR's Glen Weldon included the song in his honourable mentions of their list of best songs in Eurovision 2025, describing the song as a "great big bowl of opera sauce with a bit of club banger crumbled in". Yle's Eva Frantz gave the song an 8 out of 10 rating, writing that the song had a high chance of scoring high in the juries. However, she also admitted that she thought chances at the song winning were hindered by the similarities it had to Nemo's "The Code", the Eurovision 2024 winner. Aftenposten
Eurovision Song Contest 2025
Internal selection
Austria's broadcaster for the Eurovision Song Contest, Österreichischer Rundfunk, officially announced their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 on 7 September 2024, deciding their representative via an internal selection. In October 2024, it was reported by Austrian media that eight entries from seven artists, including Dodo Muhrer who previously represented Austria at Eurovision in as part of The Makemakes, as well as Johannes Pietsch, Kayla Krystin, Nnoa and Philip Piller, had been shortlisted following a live casting round at the ORF studios. On 30 January 2025, "Wasted Love" performed by Pietsch, under the stage name JJ, was announced by ORF as the Austrian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 during the radio show Ö3-Wecker. "Wasted Love" was selected from the eight shortlisted entries by a panel of 30 local and international music industry and Eurovision experts as well as nearly 30 international OGAE fan club representatives from five countries and the ORF Eurovision Song Contest Team.At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 took place at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 13 and 15 May and the final on 17 May 2025. During the allocation draw held on 28 January 2025, Austria was drawn to compete in the second semi-final, performing in the first half of the show. JJ was later drawn to perform in sixth, after 's Parg and before 's Klavdia.For its Eurovision performance, Sergio Jaen was appointed as the staging director. The performance featured JJ alone in a black denim outfit designed by Finnish designer Teemu Muurimäki; according to Muurimäki, the outfit was "inspired by a stormy black ocean". The performance is filmed under a black-and-white filter, with a boat prop made out of crates, a wooden mast, and a white sail being predominantly featured. During the performance, JJ performs choreography that symbolizes a boat out in rough seas, with JJ shown struggling to cling onto the boat while a wind machine blows during the song's second chorus. Nearing the end of the performance, an LED background of waves and stormy clouds with strobe lights appear, amplifying a chaotic environment. At the end, the storm and chaotic nature of the performance dissipates, with the background showing a lighthouse as a symbol of hope. "Wasted Love" secured a position in the grand final, finishing in fifth with 104 points.
JJ performed a repeat of his performance in the grand final on 17 May. The song performed ninth, after the 's Remember Monday and before 's Væb. After the results were announced, JJ finished with a total score of 436 points, with a split score of 258 jury points and 178 televoting points. Regarding the jury, the score was the highest out of any finalist. JJ's total score was enough to earn him the victory, finishing 79 points above the runner-up, Yuval Raphael's "New Day Will Rise" from. Regarding the jury vote, the song received eight sets of the maximum 12 points. However, the song did not receive any sets of 12 points from the televote; the highest amount of points given via televote was five sets of 10 points. In response to his victory, JJ encouraged in a post-Eurovision press conference to prioritize and to spread love. JJ, who identifies as queer, later added that as the third consecutive LGBTQ+ victor at Eurovision, his victory was a representation of "amazing acceptance and equality for everyone".
Reactions to performance and victory
In a Guardian live blog, Martin Belam praised the genre change within the song, predicting a top-three finish and adding that "I’ve also added it to my all-time “Eurovision bangers” playlist... I really want it to win." El Mundos Andrea M. Rosa del Pino described JJ's performance as strong due to his "incomparable voice", adding that "at the end of the performance, the euphoric shouts were even louder. There were 37 seconds of noise." El País Carlos Marcos praised the performance's choreography and JJ's vocal abilities, but lamented that "he is not accompanied by a better song". The Timess Bianca Schofield wrote that the song was an "obligatory dull ballad accompanied by mounds of dry ice", comparing the song to entries sent that year by,, and.In response to the victory, The Independents Mark Beaumont stated that with the song being the second consecutive opera-pop victor, "expect future Eurovisions to be awash with tracks resembling rave remixes of Tosca. And for the event to become ever more about optics than earworms." Kurier