Language at Eurovision: From French dominance to English supremacy
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
- Language at the Eurovision Song Contest has gone through many changes, from the French dominance of the early years, the introduction of the language rule and the dominance of English in the new millenium.
I go through the stats of the winning songs of Eurovision year by year and decade by decade and discuss why a certain language dominated a certain period of time.
What do you think? Should the language rule, forcing countries to sing in their national languages be reintroduced? Do you prefer songs in English or national languages? - Zábava
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
Did you know that if the years ends with a 7, the song that won was in their native language! 🇳🇱🇬🇧🇫🇷🇮🇪🇬🇧🇷🇸🇵🇹
I guess we'll have a song in native language winning in 2027
Looking forward to 2027 then
Ireland’s „native“ language is Irish, not English
If we‘re talking about dominant languages then this trivia would be correct
I will never forget when Portugal being the ONLY country to send non-English song in SF1 and winning both that semi and the final in 2017. The victory is so impactful that we went from getting around 5-6 non-English songs each year to more than 10 each season.
Yes that was a good start and then Maneskin and Kalush showed it was possible to win too
What I find really sad is that Sweden hasn't sent any songs in Swedish voluntarely since 1963. Aside from the four members of ABBA and one member of the Herreys, none of the Swedish winners have even been born yet when they last chose to sent a song in their own language. It also means that as of this year, Siw Malmkvist ist the only living person to have voluntarely represented Sweden in Swedish. However, voluntarely in this case only means that the country chose to use this language, as a language rule did exist in the Melodifestivalen at the time. In fact, Sweden has NEVER sent a song in Swedish unless either Eurovision, Melodifestivalen or both had a language rule. 😯
The language did however appear in the years without a rule once since Finland chose to sent a song in Swedish in 2012.
Det var härligt att höra sång på finlandssvenska i ESC 2012!
"När jag blundar" 🥰
@Quzinqa1122 love that song and also Snälla, snälla by Caroline aff Ugglas which almost made it to Eurovision
@@eurovisionhistories I wanted "Snälla snälla" to win Melodifestivalen. Voted like crazy!! 😄
@Quzinqa1122 well done ;) I hope Melissa Horn participates at some point. Love her songs as well
Great video! I don't think there should be any language rule at all. Imagine how less impactful My Sister's Crown would have been had the song not been in multiple languages. While I really like and appreciate songs in native languages of a nation and I'm glad that's been trending back the last few years, English does allow more people to understand the language.
Good point! People often think language rule and equate it to no English. Though if the song were 55 per cent in Czech it would still be fine
I couldn't say it better 👍
I do agree with your statement, however, I must say that for the few times we get to see entries like my sister’s crown, we still end up with 100 more songs coming from countries that lazily choose to go for English and don’t even attempt to incorporate other languages
What I mean is yes it is true that the language freedom rule has brought advantages such as helping introduce minority languages on the stage but that does not take away the fact that it is clearly being used to cater to the English language music industry just because it’s the biggest
Even a small rule like you have to have at least one phrase in a language associated with your country would make a huge difference and still let songs like my sister’s crown participate
What I’m trying to say in short is that having no rules at all leads to people exploiting them in wrong ways
@@danieleclementi3310 there's nothing wrong with an entry being done in English. That's their choice to make and it makes complete sense because it allows more people to enjoy and appreciate the lyrics than if the song was in another language. After all, every entrant wants their song to be successful and popular. Snap would not be the successful song it is if it wasn't in English for worldwide appeal. It's still popular even after another ESC.
This change of language is also noticable for the presentation of the show. I recall French and English were used equally until the 90s. Nowadays, the show is 99% in English. The one tiny percent is "Vous ne pouvez pas voter pour votre propre pays" + the "douze points".
I don't know why it changed at that time. Do you?
"Francofobia" maybe? I can see a trend in which Europeans think that the French language is too difficult to learn, and therefore we ignore it.
I am not a native speaker of French nor English, mais français n'est pas trop dificile. Même moi j'ai réussi à en apprendre un peu. 😁
@@Quzinqa1122 😉 C'est bien d'apprendre des langues. Et à l'Eurovision, ce serait aussi le bon endroit pour entendre du français, de l'italien, de l'allemand, du suédois...
I think they try to cut time in the voting sequence and the number of French speakers compared to the total audience is now much lower than in the 60s/70s when 5 of 16 countries were French speaking. Now its 3 (soon 4) of 37
From a personal perspective I have always enjoyed hearing the songs in different languages at Eurovision. It gives such an international feel to the event and there is something very special about a singer singing in their own language , you can sense a closeness to the song lyric even if you don't speak that particular language. However , I can understand that in terms of music marketing that English has advantages in terms of worldwide diffusion of a song. My only opinion being that whether the singer is a native English speaker or not the words of the lyric should be clear enough to communicate the meaning of the song. Unfortunately some native English speakers don't sing the language that well or clearly it has to be said.
In addition to some singers not singing well in English, it can be irritating when some English lyrics are tortured. I still can get past "Undo My Sad"🙃
@trevorcolas haha yeah. That is a good point. Break a broken heart would also be less cringy in Greek I think
@@eurovisionhistories Absolutely! It's also like nails on a chalkboard when you hear a forced attempt to make lyrics rhyme in English, although some native English-speaking songwriters can be guilty of that offense too.
In 1977, the language rule was introduced when countries were already selecting their song. Germany and Belgium got an exception from the EBU and sent a song in English anyway.
As someone from the UK, and a more mature (cough) Eurovision fan, I have to admit that I have enjoyed so many songs that were not in English. As music is a universal language, and I think others have made the point, then the emotion and the message of the song in a different language still manages to come through - I'm just thinking of Maneskin, Barbara Pravi and Kaarija just recently. And I also feel that some of the past winners, when they have been translated into English, have lost some of their sparkle and uniqueness that made them more memorable and stand out like they did (though that may be due to poor translation). As others have also said, I love Eurovision for the experience of hearing different languages, and I thought Joker Out for Slovenia this year were a good example where a song in a country's usual language can still make an impressive impression. I live in hope that a first win for someone not in English can make an impression throughout Europe just like Serbia did with Molitva. And dare I say it, some of the winners in English have been the most banal and uninspiring options on offer, although that is my own personal bias. I am loving these 'nerdy' statistical (I can write it better than I can say it 😄) videos and so count me in as a Eurovision nerd. 😀
I think it is correct with no rules, like it is nowadays. With or without language rule, Italian singers, for example, have almost always sung in Italian (in 1976, 1985, 2011 and 2012 in Italian and English and in 1991 in Neapolitan), so maybe there are countries that prefer to use English to reach more people and other ones that prefer to use the national language to show own music in own language to Europe and the world. Changing the rule could help English-speaking countries again, like in 90s, so I think it is better to keep the situation as it is now.
Thank You, King of Eurovision Statistics. 😎 Personally, I have no problem with songs being in any language as long as they are well produced, sung in tune and the lyrics are not a complete word salad (looking at you Georgia 2023) or hmm, questionable (looking at you Sweden 2011).
Stop, don't say that it's impossible
Hahaha two great examples. Sweden 2014 too
Many thanks for a nerdy episode, I always love your analytical input in ESC topics ! My radical idea is to be able to hear non-English songs only in ESC or at least 50% of every single song in the language other than English ... As I am fully aware it is not about to happen, I can only enjoy the tendency of growing popularity of national languages in the last years :)
I'd love Australia (if we continued at Eurovision), to submit a song with native aboriginal words or music. We have many to choose from - which makes it difficult - but I'd love to see Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander culture get a nod onstage!
I love nerdy statistic videos 🥰😍
You can look forward to more. Because I do too ;)
I think you should also look at the podiums. Last podium entirely in English in 2018. Last podium without an English song - 2021
Love it! ❤Give me nerdiness, give me languages. It's part of why I like the ESC so much. It just has so many levels.
Thanks for watching ;) Feel free to share with other nerds ;)
Very interesting 🤔
hm...when you see the stats like that it's a little sad for lack of a better word that most of the winning songs in recent history have been in English. I mean I don't mind, anyone should be free to choose the language they want to compete in. And we do get a lot native language songs lately that are doing very well, so I hope we continue to have a good mix and a native language song winning in the near future would ofcourse be great.
Fascinating video. I didn’t think I would find it so interesting. I’m new to Eurovision and I was wondering when live backup music discontinued. I see older videos and they had an orchestra. Now it’s recorded instruments and backing vocals? When did that change?
The live orchestra was officially fully dropped in 1999, mainly to cut costs. Also with the number of countries that now participate it would be near impossible to have them all accompanied by an orchestra. However it did always add a certain flair to the contest so if they were to decide to bring it back I would not complain. 😊 maybe just for the final in a jubilee year..perhaps at the 70th edition...it will never happen but one can hope 😊 San Remo uses an orchestra and I always love those arrangements. Zitti e Buoni with orchestra was out of this world awesome. The use of a pre recorded backing track for the instruments had been allowed since the 70's but it wasn't a rule you were forced to follow, I believe you could play live if you wanted to but i'm not sure. The allowed pre recorded backing vocals due to the pandemic but that just kind of stuck around as an option, but again that is not like a law..you don't have to use a vocal backing track if you don't want to. And obvioulsy the lead vocals have to be sung completely live.
@@Stonebrook83 thank you. I love Måneskin, but I never heard the Sanremo version of Zitti e Buoni. Love the strings.
If you don't count Crimean-Tartar I don't think Norwegian should be counted for 95 either 😅 I think its also interesting to look at the jury/televoting rules. If the televote had not been introduced in 1998, I am pretty sure Malta or UK would have won over Israel, and of course UK would also have won in 2022 with jury only. I don't want the language rule back because I love it when countries choose random languages such as Belgium 2003 and Austria 2016. Pre 1965 Austria also had a song with quite a bit of English in it.
I don't know the exact numbers off the top of my head but i do think after 2017 there was an increase in countries sending songs in their native language/not English
Also aside from Romania and maybe Latvia every song that was 100% not in English qualified for 2023's final which is VERY interesting
Yes that is true. I really loved the support for NL/ bilingual songs this year
I wish every 5 years, for example for 70th,75th ESC, song has to be contain 50% national language.
I feel like Croatia uses that system. Its not very successful for Croatia but it might be fun.
Bring back the language rule, and bring back the live orchestra. Make Eurovision European again. (BTW I'm fine with having Australia and Israel in it).
In the begining there was only jury, the public didn't matter much then .
Despite being a huge fan, I never realised that between 1956-1965 there wasn’t a language rule. I think it would have been interesting to see countries being creative with their language choices that early on
I don't think it should be abolished. I do like it when a country sends a song in their national languages, but also in regional languages (eg, Fulenn for France in 2022, which was in Breton) and I don't know if they would be allowed if they don't have national recognition.
Ironically, if that's the case, the language rule would possibly prevent us from sending a song in one of our non-English languages, which is something I wish we would do one year, as whilst languages like Cornish, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Ulster Scots, Scots and Scots Gaelic are spoken in the UK, and some have national status in our constituent countries, (I believe just Scots/Scots Gaelic in Scotland and Welsh in Wales. I don't think Northern Ireland nationally recognises any language, nor does England) none are national languages in the UK.
Additionally, I think we'd go right back to the way it was in the 90s, with the few English-speaking countries winning most of the time, which wouldn't be fair. So those are my two reasons for not supporting the idea of reintroducing the language rule, even though I do like it when countries send artists who sing in their national/regional language(s).
I would love to hear an ESC song in a Celtic language again.
Ireland had a song in Irish Gaelic once in the 1970s, didn't they?
@Quzinqa1122 Well we had breton last year and it came last. I do hope Ireland send something mystical in Irish. I think that woild work quite well for them.
@@eurovisionhistories I hope so too.
If I got that right then back in the 1970s there was a conflict between different delegations about the development of the contest, right as aftermath of the chaotic 1969 contest when many countries dropped out of the following year, especially the nordics that were upset about such conservative rules like the restriction of dancing choreographys or the ban of bands and groups. This maybe explains why these rules were lifted back in 1971. But I think the nordics wanted more, they wanted the free-language-rule, which makes much sense if you look which countries did use this rule between 1973-76. But on the other side, you got such guys as Hans-Otto Grünefeld form the Hessische Rundfunk in Germany, which was also kind-of a big influence for the contest, who wanted the language-rule back. Which is weird, because when this rule was re-activated in 1977, Germany had to apply for a special permission to perform in English because they didn't had a german version for Silver Conventions "Telegram".
Thank you very interesting. I kind of thought it was the French speaking countries that wanted it back. Interesting that Germany might have been a driving conservative force...
Language rule reintroduced
Azerbaijan: aight lmma head out
😂 yeah...and it's unfortunate because it is a beautiful language.
In 1977, Germany and Sweden were allowed to perform their songs in English because they were already selected before the rules changed.
It was Germany and Belgium, Sweden sent a song in Swedish that year
interesting, I must say that I consider the song not english even if it has one sentence not in english because I feel that the essence of the song is always there.
Actually 1981 was in English but you put it in French so of all 70 winning songs, exactly 35 (The half of all songs) had won!
He did it correct. In 1979 There were 6 songs that won in English. 1980 is 7th and 1981 is 8th like he has. The thing is he changed number before screen for 1980.
I would do a non-english eurovision for a year 😂. With a 100% ban on eurovision for every country, including english speaking ones 😅.
Should the language rule be reintroduced? Do you prefer songs in English or national languages?
No, but maybe some incentives to sending a native language song would be good. I'm thinking something like optional live subtitles, or an option to give the commentators a short 2-second summary of what their song is about that they then have to pass on to their national audience.
@@timschnitzelin Finland there has always been subtitles in ESC
I don't think there is a tiniest possibility to reintroduce the language rule in today's contest. Nobody would agree with it 😊. And there's no need for that either. Having said that, I'm a huge fan of native languages in Eurovision and I'm more than happy that there seems to be a tendency toward a natural balance of English and other languages in the contest. What happened after 1998 (not only talking about winners but the fact that the percentage of English songs increased tremendously) was probably just a reaction to the previous restrictions. I have seen it as a "developmental" period of the contest which will end up in a certain maturity 😊. At least I hope that it's the case. Of course, there will be many songs in English also in the future contests, but like I said, some kind of balance is coming, even if it has taken too much time... I think that other languages are more and more seen as an advantage nowadays because the contest has grown so much and in order to stand out among all the contestants, the originality is what counts. And another language offers such a good opportunity for that.
PS We have also always had subtitles for all of the songs here in Estonia.
I love hearing other languages but I don’t know about making it a rule.
@@Piia2023 cool!
Finally Croatian flag 😁
That was a courageous choice for 1989. 😂 Probably less incendiary if you'd chosen the term Serbo-croatian which is the official designation. (I am half-Croat myself just to clear up any concerns with bias ;).
But today wouldn't you say the song is in Croatian as the term SerboCroatian is no longer in use and it is not a Serbian band (Just curious)
@@eurovisionhistories The term is controversial but "... is still used for lack of a succinct alternative,[34] though alternative names have emerged, such as Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS)..." As a Croat I'd happily claim the song but that might really rile some folk hence my original comment. ;)
@@eurovisionhistories you were absoluteley correct to claim 1989 Yugoslav victory for Croatian language. The song is entirely in Croatian (even then that is how the language was called in Croatia, Serbo-Croatian was used in Bosnia, Slovenia, Macedonia and internationally, but in Serbia they used the name "Serbian language" for instance). The band is from Croatia. They won Yugoslav contest as representative of Socialist Republic of Croatia (TV Zagreb). And finally, ESC 1990 was held in Zagreb, capital of Croatia, exactly because of that - because it represented Croatia within Yugoslavia. If you used "Serbo-Croatian" for Yugoslavia 1989. then some could have argued the same should apply for Serbia and Marija Šerifović in 2007. But using like this you avoided that debate. Then again if you used Serbo-Croatian for both, that language would have had 2 wins... ;)
@@ilija21the official language of Yugoslavia was Serbo-Croatian since 1944 till the break up. The official language of Croatia today is Croatian and official language of Serbia today is Serbian. Yugoslavia winning in 1989 was a win for all 6 republics, not just Croatia. Even though Riva is from Croatia, the TV stations of all republics vote who to send on Eurovision to represent Yugoslavia. The winning song goes to Eurovision. Riva won representing TV Zagreb and that is why their victory brought Eurovision to Zagreb. It wouldn’t be fair to claim victory as it’s Croatian victory because it’s not. The band is from Croatia, that’s about it. Croatia didn’t win on their own Eurovision ever. Case with Serbia is different
@@Nash-NYC nobody claimed the 1989 victory for Croatia, just for Croatian language. This all post is about languages, not countries.
Très intéressant ! L'effondrement du français à compter des années 90 est malheureusement parallèle à celui de la France elle-même, cette période correspond comme vous l'évoquez d'ailleurs dans la vidéo à cette fameuse mondialisation qui n'est rien d'autre dans les faits qu'une américanisation. Un piège à con quoi