The song had been teased by the reigning champion these previous weeks. On Friday 5 September, “Back To Forgetting” was finally released on all platforms. Less operatic, but with an earworm of a chorus and potential for some social media trends, JJ delivers more music as he promised back in Basel.
A new single for JJ
After winning Eurovision in Basel with “Wasted Love”, JJ promised that he had plans to release more music. A few days into the 2026 season, he has finally done so, with “Back To Forgetting”. Less operatic than his winning song, it is another kind of breakout song, where JJ laments his inability to truly let go of an ex, “[slipping] on a message after dark” and meeting them again and again.
The chorus, which had already been teased in teasers throughout the summer, has all the potential for a TikTok trend, with JJ already posting several choreographed versions of it on socials. And for those who enjoyed the operatic aspects of “Wasted Love”, although they are not as present in “Back To Forgetting”, there are a few high vocals to accompany the bridge, right before the last chorus.
An Austrian, Australian and Swedish collaboration
The credits for the song-writing go to Kristofer Strandberg, Jude York and Johannes Pietsch, aka JJ. Jude York is also credited as having provided additional vocals (having likely added, among other things, the echoing “forgetting it happened at all” at 1:52 in the song)
Kristofer Strandberg is a Swedish songwriter who was also part of the competition back in Basel, having co-written Sweden’s “Bara Bada Bastu”.
As for Jude York, he is a young queer Australian singer from Brisbane. Although he has not yet taken part in the Contest, he has tried in the past (finishing 8th in Australia Decides 2022, with “I don’t need to dream“) and is seen by many fans as a contender for a future Australian participation. He does not hide his love for Eurovision and for Europe in general, where he has recently toured, and has filmed the video clips of two of his recent successful songs, “Monaco” and “Those Were The Days“.
A small Instagram post from his account may very fuel speculations about a Vienna 2026 participation: in the short video extract from his “Those Were The Days”, he writes how much Austria has recently come up in his life…
But back to JJ and back to “Back To Forgetting”, how do you feel about the new song? How does it compare to other follow-up songs from previous Eurovision winners? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
