Austria welcomes JJ back home with cheers, hugs and roses after winning Eurovision Song Contest
Entertainment
JJ, whose full name is Johannes Pietsch
VIENNA (AP) — Austrian fans enthusiastically welcomed classically trained singer JJ back home at Vienna airport on Sunday after he won the 69th Eurovision Song Contest with “Wasted Love.”
As JJ walked through the gate, hundreds of fans cheered, some played his song and others surrounded the new star, hugging him and asking for autographs.
The 24-year-old countertenor, whose winning song combines operatic, multi-octave vocals with a techno twist, and who also sings at the Vienna State Opera, held up his trophy in one hand and a big bouquet of roses in the other. He smiled, wiped away tears and told the crowd “that victory is for you.”
JJ, whose full name is Johannes Pietsch, was Austria’s third Eurovision winner, after bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst in 2014 and Udo Jürgens in 1966.
“This is beyond my wildest dreams. It’s crazy,” said the singer when being handed the microphone-shaped glass Eurovision trophy after his win in the Swiss city of Basel on Saturday night.
On Sunday night, JJ told reporters in Vienna that “I don’t think you’ll realize that you did it at all until you’re on your deathbed.”
