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 Finnish, French and French Sign Language.

Georgian

Georgian is the most widely spoken Kartvelian language. It is the official language of Georgia and the native or primary language of 88% of its population. It also serves as the literary language or lingua franca for speakers of related languages. Its speakers today amount to approximately 3.8 million. Georgian is written with its own unique Georgian scripts, alphabetical systems of unclear origin.

Georgian first appeared within phrases of “I’m a Joker”, the Georgian entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, before appearing in full, within “For You”, the Georgian entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao performed “For You”, finishing in 18th place in the semi final, with 24 points.

German

German is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is also an official language of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol, as well as a recognised national language in Namibia. There are also notable German-speaking communities in other parts of Europe, including: Poland (Upper Silesia), the Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Denmark (North Schleswig), Slovakia (Krahule), Romania, Hungary (Sopron), and France (Alsace). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in the Americas.

German appeared in full, within “Das alte Karussell”, the Swiss entry for the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest. Lys Assia performed “Das alte Karussell”, finishing in an undisclosed place.

Gheg Albanian

Gheg or Geg is one of the two major varieties of Albanian, the other being Tosk. The geographic dividing line between the two varieties is the Shkumbin River, which winds its way through central Albania. Gheg is spoken in northern and central Albania, Kosovo, northwestern North Macedonia, southeastern Montenegro and southern Serbia by the Albanian dialectal subgroup known as Ghegs.

Gheg Albanian appeared within phrases of “Suus”, the Albanian entry for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Rona Nishliu performed “Suus”, finishing in 5th place with 146 points.

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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