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 Swedish, Tahitian, and Torlakian.

Swedish

Swedish is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the fourth most spoken Germanic language, and the first among its type in the Nordic countries overall.

Swedish appeared in full, within “Lilla stjärna”, the Swedish entry for the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest. Alice Babs performed “Lilla stjärna”, finishing in 4th place with 10 points.

Tahitian

Tahitian is a Polynesian language, spoken mainly on the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It belongs to the Eastern Polynesian group. As Tahitian had no written tradition before the arrival of the Western colonists, the spoken language was first transcribed by missionaries of the London Missionary Society in the early 19th century.

Tahitian appeared within phrases of “La Coco-Dance”, the Monégasque entry for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. Séverine Ferrer performed “La Coco-Dance”, finishing in 21st place in the semi final, with 14 points.

Torlakian

Torlakian or Torlak, is a group of transitional South Slavic dialects spoken across southeastern Serbia, southern and eastern Kosovo, northwestern and northeastern North Macedonia, and northwestern Bulgaria. Torlakian, together with Bulgarian and Macedonian, falls into the Balkan Slavic linguistic area, which is part of the broader Balkan sprachbund.

Torlakian appeared within phrases of “Nova deca”, the Serbian entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Sanja Ilić & Balkanika performed “Nova deca”, finishing in 19th place with 113 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/ESC:56-73/EBU