This year, the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest featured a record breaking twenty languages. Eurovision Ireland will be looking at all the languages that have been performed at the Contest, since 1956, in our latest #AtoZ. Today, we continue the series with Dalmatian Croatian, Danish and Dutch.

Dalmatian Croatian

Dalmatian or Dalmatic is a group of now-extinct Romance varieties that developed along the coast of Dalmatia. Over the centuries they were increasingly influenced, and then supplanted, by Croatian and Venetian. It has not been demonstrated that Dalmatian belonged to a larger branch of Romance or even that its varieties constituted a valid genetic grouping of their own.

Dalmatian Croatian appeared within phrases of “Moja štikla”, the Croatian entry for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Severina performed “Moja štikla”, finishing in 12th place with 56 points.

Danish

Danish, is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schleswig, where it has minority language status. Minor Danish-speaking communities are also found in Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

Danish appeared in full, within “Skibet skal sejle i nat”, the Danish entry for the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest. Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler performed “Skibet skal sejle i nat”, finishing in 3rd place with 10 points.

Dutch

Dutch is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language and is the third most spoken Germanic language. In Europe, Dutch is the native language of most of the population of the Netherlands and Flanders.

Dutch appeared in full, within “De vogels van Holland”, the Dutch entry for the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest. Jetty Paerl performed “De vogels van Holland”, finishing in an undisclosed place.

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The Eurovision Community, which Eurovision Ireland are a part of, celebrates diversity through music. Please keep your comments respectful. We will not tolerate racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, body-shaming or any other derogatory or hostile language.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovision Ireland, Wikipedia & YouTube/EBU/ESC:56-73