Eurovision 2025: Interview to JJ

Eurovision 2025 is right around the corner. Tonight, 16 more songs will fight for the last 10 tickets to the Grand Final. We at Radio Bocconi had the pleasure to interview Austria’s Johannes Pietsch, better known with his stage name JJ, one of the main favorites to win it all with his pop-opera masterpiece “Wasted love.”

Elisabeth: Hallo JJ! It’s my pleasure to interview you right before your big Eurovision debut – you’re one of our favorite contestants this year. Growing up, did you ever envision yourself gracing the stage at Eurovision? What was going through your head when you found out you were selected?

JJ: I was on the way to University in the centre of Vienna, when Teya (note: Austria 2024) called me and told me that I was going to Eurovision. I started to cry in the middle of the street and just couldn’t believe it.

Elisabeth: As a classically trained opera singer with an incredible vocal range, at what age did you realize your talent? When did you know you wanted to dedicate your life to music?

JJ: That was quite early. I always liked to sing at my parents’ karaoke parties, and I also liked to imitate voices and sounds – like Shakira, Mariah or even Vacuum Cleaners. Later, I discovered that I could sing also very high notes, and it was my grandmother, who first told me, that I could be a countertenor.

Elisabeth: Your life story is anything but conventional, having lived between Vienna and Dubai to an Austrian father and Filipino mother. How has your cultural background shaped your art? Any inspirations we should know about?

JJ: I guess my background helped me to always stay open minded and embrace new things and changes in my life. My Austrian father always made us listen to classical music and my mother regularly hosted Karaoke parties. That might explain my love for Popera.

Elisabeth: You made a beautiful collab with Conchita Wurst – how was it working with our Austrian queer icon and most recent Eurovision winner on your mashup of “Wasted Love” with “Rise Like a Phoenix”? How does it feel to represent the queer community on an international stage, and do you consider yourself a queer icon, too?

JJ: It was simply out of this world to mix ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ with my song and perform it together with Conchita – I never would have dared to dream of that. I had goosebumps, and we also had a lot of fun doing it. Conchita is an icon and I hope that one day I’ll be an icon too.

Elisabeth: Just like your song, we would like to finish this conversation on a more dance-like note. At which clubs or raves in Vienna (or worldwide, think big!) would you love to dance to “Wasted Love”?

JJ: Well, if the sky is the limit: Coachella, Tomorrowland and Berghain…

Perhaps one day we will be able to say that Radio Bocconi has interviewed a Eurovision winner… Whether or not this will happen after on Sunday or in the future, we wish JJ the very best of luck in representing Austria tonight (15.05.2025), and, fingers crossed, in the Grand Final on Saturday, 17.05.2025.

Elisabeth Hofer