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 Slovene, Spanish, and Sranan Tongo.

Slovene

Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the inhabitants of Slovenia, the majority of them ethnic Slovenes. As Slovenia is part of the European Union, Slovene is also one of its 24 official and working languages. Its grammar is highly fusional, and it has a dual grammatical number, an archaic feature shared with some other Indo-European languages. Two accentual norms (one characterised by pitch accent) are used. Its flexible word order is often adjusted for emphasis or stylistic reasons, although basically it is an SVO language. It has a T–V distinction: the use of the V-form demonstrates a respectful attitude towards superiors and the elderly, while it can be sidestepped through the passive form.

Slovene appeared in full, within “Brez besed”, the Yugoslav entry for the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest. Berta Ambrož performed “Brez besed”, finishing in 7th place with 9 points.

Spanish

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a global language with 483 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain, and about 558 million speakers total, including second-language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries, as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Spanish is the world’s second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world’s fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world’s most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico.

Spanish first appeared within phrases of “Telefon, Telefon”, the German entry for the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest, before appearing in full, within “Estando contigo”, the Spanish entry for the 1961 Eurovision Song Contest. Conchita Bautista performed “Estando contigo”, finishing in 9th place with 8 points.

Sranan Tongo

Sranan Tongo is an English-based creole language from Suriname, in South America, where it is the first or second language for 519,600 Surinamese people. It is also spoken in the Netherlands and across the Surinamese diaspora. It is considered both an unofficial national language and a lingua franca.

Sranan Tongo appeared within lines of “Birth of a New Age”, the Dutch entry for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest. Jeangu Macrooy performed “Birth of a New Age”, finishing in 23rd place with 11 points.

Let us know what you think about the Eurovision Song Contest – either in the comments below or on our FACEBOOK, BLUESKY, TWITTER, YOUTUBE, INSTAGRAM and TIKTOK pages.

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/escLIVEmusic1/ESC:56-73/EBU