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 conclude the series with Võro, Yankunytjatjara and Yugoslav Sign Language.

Võro

Võro is a South Estonian language. It has its own literary standard and efforts have been undertaken to seek official recognition as an indigenous regional language of Estonia. Võro has roughly 75,000 speakers (Võros), mostly in southeastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of the historical Võru County: Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centred (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva counties, with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the cities of Tallinn and Tartu and the rest of Estonia.

Võro appeared in full, within “Tii”, the Estonian entry for the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest. Neiokõsõ performed “Tii”, finishing in 11th place in the semi final, with 57 points.

Yankunytjatjara

Yankunytjatjara is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages, belonging to the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the many varieties of the Western Desert Language, all of which are mutually intelligible.

Yankunytjatjara appeared within lines of “One Milkali (One Blood)”, the Australian entry for the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. Electric Fields performed “One Milkali (One Blood)”, finishing in 11th place in the semi final, with 41 points.

Yugoslav Sign Language

The deaf sign language of the nations of the former Yugoslavia, known variously as Croatian Sign Language, Kosovar Sign Language, Serbian Sign Language, Bosnian Sign Language, Macedonian Sign Language, Slovenian Sign Language, or Yugoslav Sign Language (YSL), started off when children were sent to schools for the deaf in Austro-Hungary in the early 19th century. The first two local schools opened in 1840 in Slovenia and in 1885 in Croatia.

Yugoslav Sign Language appeared in full, within “Beauty Never Lies”, the Serbian entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Bojana Stamenov performed “Beauty Never Lies”, finishing in 10th place with 53 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