JJ, whose full name is Johannes Pietsch, won this year's Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Austria with the contribution "Wasted love". He tells El Pais that he now wishes that Israel, which came in second place, would not participate in the competition next year.
There should be greater transparency around the telephone votes. This year, everything was very strange. It's a disappointment that Israel is still allowed to participate, and I would like the Eurovision to be held in Vienna next year. But the ball is in the EBU's court. We, the artists, can only express our opinions on the matter, he says to the newspaper.
Israel's second place in Eurovision is being questioned due to the war in Gaza, and a number of TV companies are demanding that EBU investigate fraud in the voting.
The Flemish TV company VRT was the first to demand an investigation. In recent days, more have joined the chorus: TV companies in Ireland, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Finland are also demanding an investigation.
Israel received twelve points, i.e. full score, from the Belgian, Spanish, and Swedish people, but zero points from the countries' juries, which has raised questions about whether the voting was manipulated.
The EBU has stated that it will have a "broad discussion" with the TV companies. At the same time, it emphasizes that the voting procedure for the Eurovision Song Contest "is the most advanced in the world", where each country is controlled so that no suspicious or irregular voting patterns arise.
