Standing in front of the mirror at home in Dubai and singing Hannah Montana songs, 13-year-old Johannes Pietsch dreamt of one day becoming a pop star.
“I've always believed that you can never dream too big,” Pietsch, now 24, tells The National. “And that nothing is unreachable.”
Better known by his stage name JJ, he realised that dream two weeks ago when he was crowned the 2025 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest. JJ's high-pitched operatic pop number, Wasted Love, had been a bookies' favourite since he was named as Austria's representative in the long-running competition in January.
Twenty-six performers – out of an initial 37 – performed in the finals in Basel, Switzerland. Each performer represented a country from the European Broadcasting Union, and contestants were voted through to the finals by television viewers.
“It was an amazing feeling to win for Austria,” JJ says, still on a high from his win. “It was a really long show and a lot of intense waiting. But when we finally got the points, it was euphoric. I was going through a roller coaster of emotions.”
The son of an Austrian father and Filipina mother, JJ was born in Vienna, but spent 15 formative years in Dubai where his father ran an IT business, before the family moved back to Austria.
“I had a pretty great childhood in Dubai,” says JJ, who went to the German International School. “In Dubai we always had the latest in everything, from toys to gadgets – everything that we saw coming from the States was in Dubai a week later.
“And I remember how much fun we had as kids. It was so diverse, a lot of different cultures meeting at one place. That was really nice.”
It was also in Dubai where JJ's love for music was nurtured.
“We had karaoke parties every weekend at our house and that's where I started singing,” he says with a laugh. “The first song I learnt to sing was Because of You by Kelly Clarkson.
“And my dad was a big fan of classical music, so the next morning we'd be listening to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and that's when I continued to develop my interest in classical music as well.”
His blend of classical and pop music with operatic flair set JJ apart from the competition at Eurovision, which is known for sparkly outfits and cheesy Europop lyrics.
He says he learnt to sing falsetto at his parents' karaoke parties.
“After going through puberty, I realised that I still had a high singing voice. At first, it was just a cool party trick to imitate a soprano, but as I got better, I continued to work on that and eventually decided that I wanted to pursue a career in opera.”
After moving back to Vienna as a teenager, JJ took part in reality shows including The Voice UK in 2020 and Austrian talent show Starmania in 2021. He also attended the opera school at Vienna State Opera where he now performs.
Last year, JJ and his collaborators wrote Wasted Love, a song about unrequited love that showcases his unique falsetto voice and blends classical music with techno beats. They sent the song to ORF, the Austrian public broadcaster, which selects the country's representative for Eurovision, and JJ was eventually picked following an audition.
At Eurovision, which began on May 13, JJ, along with Sweden's three-man band Kaj, quickly became odds-on favourites to win. But it was during rehearsals for the grand final on May 17, that he began to think he actually had a winning chance.
“My biggest competitors were Sweden, and they came up to me and said they were blown away by my stage performance. The audience was also cheering even louder when I came on stage.
“That's when it started to click. I was like 'oh, so we could actually win', because the people are more hyped for me than they were for Sweden.
“Then I just thought: 'OK, I'll just enjoy it and give my everything and we will see who wins.'
“But I must say, Sweden did an amazing job on their performance. I really respect them so much. They are the loveliest people, the three of them, and we have a great friendship too, so it wasn't really like a competition in that sense.”
JJ is exhausted from the press tour following his win, but grateful for everything. For now, he's looking forward to a holiday in July, before he returns to the studio to make new music. He's also in discussions for a potential tour.
“I want to say thank you so much to everybody for all of their love and support. It's been really overwhelming how much love I've been receiving from every single part of the world,” he says.
“And the entire Filipino community in Dubai, I've been feeling so much love from them, and also the locals in Dubai and all of my friends that I still have there. I can't wait to finally bring new music to all of them and hopefully come for a tour to the Middle East. I would love to come back. That would be amazing.”
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Tickets
Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.
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THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
If you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Chicago from Dh5,215 return including taxes.
The hotels
Recommended hotels include the Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, located in an iconic skyscraper complete with a 1929 Olympic-size swimming pool from US$299 (Dh1,100) per night including taxes, and the Omni Chicago Hotel, an excellent value downtown address with elegant art deco furnishings and an excellent in-house restaurant. Rooms from US$239 (Dh877) per night including taxes.
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The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 611bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Price: upon application
On sale: now
MATCH INFO
Manchester City 0
Wolves 2 (Traore 80', 90 4')
SPECS
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Match info
Uefa Champions League Group H
Juventus v Valencia, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Despacito's dominance in numbers
Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
On sale: Now, deliveries expected later in 2025
Price: expected to start at Dh1,432,000
