Celebrating JJ as Eurovision's first-ever winner with Asia-Pacific ancestry

Today June 12 is Philippines Independence Day, which is the country's national day that they use to commemorate their independence from Spain in 1898.

We're using the day to celebrate the fact that this year's Eurovision winner JJ is not only the first winner of Filipino ethnicity, but also the first winner with ancestry from the Asia-Pacific region.

With contributors from across the Asia-Pacific region, we at Aussievision felt particular pride at this achievement.

JJ's connection to Philippines

JJ's mother is a cook from the Philippines and she is of Tagalog ancestry.

He was born in Vienna to an Austrian father, but spent the majority of his childhood in the United Arab Emirates.

He moved back to the Austrian capital at the age of 15 where he developed his musical career.

JJ, however, has kept close ties to the Philippines.

He can speak Tagalog fluently, which he shared in a special video message to Aussievision earlier this year.

He also told Rolling Stone in an interview, that he continues to visit.

"[My last visit was] I think back in 2023, but we’re trying to visit as often as possible now," he said.

"I also just got an invitation from ASAP, so I would love to do that. I feel like that’s how you know you’re really famous in the Philippines."

ASAP is a Philippine variety show that has been going since 1995.

After winning Eurovision, he also shared how proud he was to represent his heritage.

"We say in Austria that all good things come in threes – I’m so honoured to be up there with these two [former Austrian winners] and also to be the first half-Filipino to win.”

He also told Rolling Stone that he had wished that a Filipino Cardinal had won the race to become Pope.

"I really didn’t think I’d win, but when I did, the only thing I could think of was, ‘Oh my god, we should’ve gotten a Filipino Pope too," he said.

"Wouldn’t that have been insane? A Filipino Eurovision winner and a Filipino Pope? It would have been such a huge karaoke month.”

And JJ's favourite Karaoke song?

"My go-to karaoke song is Because of You, by Kelly Clarkson, since that was the first karaoke song that I ever learned," he said.

"But whenever I’m in the Philippines, I sing anything by Regine [Velasquez] or Zsa Zsa Padilla. I love the classics, love OPM. We need to make it a bigger thing, not just in the Philippines, but all over the world." 

Asia-Pacific artists have always been at Eurovision

As Aussievision has previously covered there have been artists who have competed at Eurovision who were born, grew up or have strong heritage to the Asia-Pacific region.

The first Eurovision artist from the Asia-Pacific to compete at Eurovision was Anneke Grönloh, who was born in modern-day Indonesia. She represented the Netherlands at Eurovision 1964 with the energetic Jij bent mijn leven and finished 10th with 2 points.

Australia has had many Eurovision participants with ancestry from the Asia-Pacific region including Guy Sebastian, Jessica Mauboy and Sheldon Riley.

However, the most successful Australian entrant with such heritage is South Korean-born Dami Im, who finished runner-up at Eurovision 2016 with Sound of Silence.

JJ has gone one better than Dami this year to break a historic Eurovision milestone.

His victory serves as an inspiration to many Eurovision fans with ancestry from the Asia-Pacific region, and could bring many more fans from the region to follow the competition.

Hopefully, many more singers with heritage from the Asia-Pacific will participate in Eurovision and achieve great results.

We would like to wish all our Filipino readers and followers a happy Independence Day!

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