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Language at the Eurovision Song Contest

“500 million people, 200 languages. No one’s got a clue what they’re saying to each other!

• Eddie Izzard on Europe

While Eddie Izzard might be right, there is one language that all Europeans understand – EUROVISION! From Iceland to Azerbaijan, whatever tongues people speak, everyone can relate to these musical pleas for peace, love and an increasing number for cake (?!). Songs in foreign languages are an iconic part of our beloved Eurovision, so here is some trivia on languages at the Eurovision Song Contest you might not know:

1: As of 2014, songs in 56 languages have graced the Eurovision stage. The last decade alone has seen 16 new languages make their Eurovision debut!

2: Over the decades, the contest has had several rules regarding language. At first, there were no rules restricting which languages a country could sing in. It was only in 1966, allegedly after Sweden sang “Absent Friend” in English the previous year, that the EBU ruled countries must sing in a national language.

3: This rule was briefly abolished between 1973 and 1976, meaning countries could sing in any language of their choice. Indeed, ABBA and Teach-In won the contest for Sweden and the Netherlands singing in English during this time!

4: From 1977 to 1999, the rule restricting language use was reinstated. But as of 2000, countries can sing in whichever language they choose – which has seen an increasing number of countries opting for English.

5: A reason for this may be that English language songs have won the contest on 29 occasions, making it the language of the majority of Eurovision winners. The runner-up is French, accounting for 14 winning songs.

6: Andorra, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom have ALWAYS sung their songs (at least partially) in a national or regional language – in Andorra’s case, their 2008 entry “Casanova” contained just ONE line in Catalan!

7: Arabic first made an appearance at Eurovision in 1980 with Morocco’s “Bitaqat Hub”. After Morocco’s poor placing and subsequent withdrawal, Arabic wasn’t heard again at Eurovision till 2009, with Israel’s “There Must Be Another Way”.

8: Not content with all the languages of Europe to choose from (not to mention three official languages of their own!) Belgium sang “Sanomi” in an imaginary language in 2003. The bold idea clearly paid off, as they gave Turkey a run for their money by coming 2^nd in Riga.

9: Other attempts to sing in made-up languages, however, have proved less successful. Neither the Netherlands with “Amambanda” in 2006 nor Belgium with “O Julissi” in 2008 managed to make it to the final, coming 20^th and 17^th in their semis respectively.

10: Buranovskiye Babushki are undoubtedly one of the most popular acts to represent Russia at Eurovision, but what you may not know is that “Party For Everybody” isn’t sung in Russian, but rather Udmurt – a language spoken over 600 miles east of Moscow.

11: An incredible 7 new languages (Estonian, Romanian, Slovak, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Russian and Polish) debuted at Eurovision 1994 in Dublin – the most ever new languages to occur in a single year. Even the 12 songs of the inaugural contest in 1956 were only sung in 4 languages!

12: 1994 also saw language use cause quite a scandal. Poland’s Edyta Górniak sang in English during the rehearsal in which juries voted for the winner. 6 countries promptly demanded Poland be disqualified, but “To Nie Ja!” was allowed to compete and came 2^nd – to date, Poland’s best ever placing.

13: Norway’s 1973 entry “It’s Just A Game” holds the record for the most languages used in a single Eurovision entry with a whopping 12 languages! Though sung largely in English and French, the song also includes lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Hebrew, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian!

14: Bulgaria’s “Love Unlimited” came just one language short of taking this record in 2012, but does earn a place in the history books for being the first song (at least partly) sung in Azeri – beating Azerbaijan to singing in their native tongue!

15: Romani, a group of languages spoken by the Roma across Europe made its Eurovision debut in 2009 with the Czech Republic’s “Aven Romale”. Unfortunately for them, it was also the first song in 5 years to score ‘nul points’…

So what does the future hold for languages at Eurovision? Would you like to see a return to the days of countries singing in their national language? Do you like the variety? Or are you content with the increasing presence of English? And what about new languages? Will new countries taking part in the future bring new languages with them? How long before we hear “Qazaqstan men on eki upay üşin…” at the Eurovision final??

The possibilities are literally endless…

Author : James Scanlan

Source : Eurovision Ireland