Austria - Michaela S

ORF collaborated with music experts Eberhard Forscher and Peter Schreiber on entry for the to submit their songs between 3 July 2024 and 15 September 2024. Artists were also able to apply without a song but were required to submit audio samples or reference songs from them alongside their applications In addition to the open submission, a songwriting camp with several artists and composers was held in Vienna to create songs for the 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 2015 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, aired on O3. "Wasted Love" was co-written by JJ and Austrian 2023 representative Teodora Špirić ( Teya) and 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. The song was released in March 2025.

Pietsch was born in Vienna to an Austrian IT specialist and a Filipino cook and grew up in Dubai. In 2016, the family returned to Austria. In 2020, he took part in the ninth series of The Voice UK after missing the deadline for The Voice of Germany The following year, he took part in the fifth season of Starmania, where he made it to the first final show. He also attends the Music and Arts University of the City of

Vienna after visiting the opera school of the Vienna State Opera

Pietsch's musical style combines elements of opera and pop. As a "soprano" type of countertenor with a range reaching into high soprano heights, he explores both genres through an intense and expressive vocal and interpretative approach.

JJ stated the following:

" The song perfectly captures the experience with unrequited love. There's a special kind of heartbreak when you have so much love to give, but no place to get to. It feels like floating on a fragile paper boat on the sea - clinging to every glimmer of hope just to watch it dissolve under you. And yet there is something undeniably beautiful in this naive devotion. Because in the end, it's nice to just be able to love - no matter how wasted."

In "Wasted Love," JJ combines his vocal art as a countertenor with pop and techno elements. He combines his classical roots with a modern artistic vision. The music video for "Wasted Love" reflects the emotional intensity of the song. The video was staged by director Marek Vesely in a Föhrenwald near Wiener Neustadt, in the Stadttheater Baden and in the I Dive diving school in Vienna, where JJ dived for underwater recordings. In addition, a forest with water surface and snow landscape was recreated in a studio in Lower Austria.

https://youtu.be/-ieSTNpxvio?si=DLWHicY42hcsAbKC