Austria’s Eurovision winner Johannes “JJ” Pietsch has come under fire for critical remarks about Israel and equating its war in Gaza with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I am very disappointed that Russia was left out and Israel was left in,” said the Austrian singer, who on May 17 won the 2025 Eurovision song contest in Basel.
“They are both bellicose aggressors. Moreover, both have actively tried to provoke it, which is very disappointing. There is nothing I can do, but if it had been up to me, I would have excluded them both,” he said in an interview with Spanish newspaper ABC.
Pietsch also expressed doubts about the accuracy of the audience vote.
The public overwhelmingly voted for Israeli singer Yuval Raphael, while Pietsch himself only came in fourth.
He owes his victory to a jury of music experts, who assigned half the total points to the 26 candidates.
“I was surprised that Israel got so many of the televotes”, Pietsch told Spanish reporter Nacho Serrano.
“It is true that they were always very strong with the bookmakers and were one of the favourites to win. But it was a big surprise how far ahead of all other contestant countries they were. I’ve heard that many countries are calling for an investigation into the matter, into the way the televoting works. We’ll see what comes out of that,” he said.
Pietsch added he hoped the contest would be “fairer” next year when his home country Austria hosts the Eurovision Song Contest and that the televote would be better supervised.
Pietsch’s remarks were met with disdain by many Austrians.
Former left-wing politician Thomas Walach wrote on X, “Mr JJ is very disappointed that Israel is allowed to take part in Eurovision. I am very disappointed that antisemitism is ingrained in the art scene.”
Israel’s ambassador to Austria, David Roet, said “I would love to meet JJ in person and talk to him about all these issues. I cordially invite him to visit Israel. I’m sure Yuval [Raphael] would also be happy to meet him. Sometimes it can make a big difference to hear a different perspective.”
Pietsch later walked back his remarks in a statement published by his record label Warner Music.
He said, “I apologise if my words have been misunderstood. Although I criticise the Israeli government, I condemn any form of violence against civilians anywhere in the world, be it against Israelis or Palestinians.”
On May 22, Pietsch also came under fire after tabloid newspaper Heute revealed he had liked a Facebook post on a recent murder of a young Israeli couple by a pro-Palestinian leftist in Washington DC.
Brussels Signal reached out to Pietsch for comment, but had not heard back at the time of writing.
