Eurovision fans react to ‘historic’ win from unexpected contender

The biggest night in European music has officially wrapped, and it's safe to say the Eurovision Song Contest reached a nail-biting finale, with Austria and Israel battling it out to be on top.

However, once the jury and public votes were combined, it was Austria who took home the trophy, and will play host to the song contest next year.

Sweden were initially favoured to win with an accordion-led tribute to sauna culture.

While Austria has won twice before - with previous victories going to Udo Jürgens' Merci, Cherie in 1966; and Conchita Wurst with Rise Like a Phoenix in 2014 - fans were left surprised that they managed to break into the top five when initial voting suggested they weren't as popular as they were tipped to be.

Austria and Israel made it down to the final two to win Getty

In the end they had 436 points over Israel's 357 - but not a single 12 points from the televoting.

This year's entry came from 24-year-old JJ (real name Johannes Pietsch), who performed his opera-meets-EDM track, 'Wasted Love', set aboard a ship.

"It's about my personal experience with unreciprocated love," he said of the inspiration behind the song. "It felt like I was walking a one-way street."

Their rival in the contest ended up being Israel's Yuval Raphael, who placed as runner-up, but received a controversial reception with pro-Palestine protesters attempting to storm the stage, and the BBC's Graham Norton admitting there was a "mixed response" to their entry in the studio.

Nonetheless, Austria's JJ told the crowd "Love is the strongest force in the world, let's spread more love," as he picked up his trophy.

Here are the biggest reactions from the win...

Many fans commended JJ on the skill it took to pull off the performance

Others were impressed they clinched the win despite not being popular in the televote

JJ also made history of his own

And signed off his win with a sweet message

Why not read...

Eurovision: The craziest performances of all time, ranked

We asked ChatGPT to write a Eurovision song for the contest

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