List of languages in the Eurovision Song Contest

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The following is a list of languages used in the Eurovision Song Contest since its inception in 1956, including songs (as) performed in finals and, since 2004, semi-finals. The rules concerning the language of the entries have been changed several times over the years.

From 1956 until 1965, there was no rule restricting the languages in which the songs could be sung. However, in 1966 a rule was imposed stating that the songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating. This was after Ingvar Wixell sung his song in English for Sweden the year before.

The language restriction continued until 1973, when it was lifted and performers were again allowed to sing in any language they wished. Several winners in the mid-1970s took advantage of the newly-found allowance, with performers from non-native-English-speaking countries singing in English, including ABBA in 1974. In 1977, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the Contest's organisers, decided to revert to the national language restriction. However, special dispensation was given to Germany and Belgium as their national song selection procedures were already too advanced to change.

In 1999, the rule was changed again to allow the choice of language once more. This linguistic allowance led to the Belgian entry in 2003, "Sanomi", being sung in an entirely fictional language. In 2006 the Dutch entry, "Amambanda", was sung partly in English and partly in an artificial language. In 2008, again a Belgian entry, "O Julissi" was made in an imaginary language.

Since the re-introduction of this language rule, several countries have chosen to sing their songs in a mix of languages, often including English and the national language of the country. Prior to that, several songs (such as Croatia's "Don't Ever Cry" in 1993, Austria's "One Step" and Bosnia and Herzegovina's "Goodbye" in 1997) had the title and a line of the song in a foreign language (mostly English).

The country that used the most languages in a song is "It's Just a Game" that was sung by the group Bendik Singers, that represented Norway in the 1973 Contest. The song was performed in English and French, with some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Irish, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian.

As of 2011 only three countries have not sung in any of their national language(s): Azerbaijan has yet to enter a song in Azerbaijani since their debut in 2008; Belarus have yet to enter a song in either Belarussian or Russian since their first participation in 2004; and Georgia has yet to enter a song in Georgian since 2007. As well, Monaco have yet to enter a song performed in their native Monégasque.

[edit] First appearances of language

Order	Language	First appearance	Country	First performer	First song
1	Dutch	1956	Netherlands	Jetty Paerl	"De vogels van Holland"
2	German^{[see 1]}	1956	Switzerland	Lys Assia	"Das alte Karussell"
3	French	1956	Belgium	Fud Leclerc	"Messieurs les noyés de la Seine"
4	Italian	1956	Italy	Franca Raimondi	"Aprite le finestre"
5	English	1957	United Kingdom	Patricia Bredin	"All"
6	Danish	1957	Denmark	Birthe Wilke & Gustav Winckler	"Skibet skal sejle i nat"
7	Swedish	1958	Sweden	Alice Babs	"Lilla stjärna"
8	Luxembourgish	1960	Luxembourg	Camillo Felgen	"So laang we's du do bast"
9	Norwegian	1960	Norway	Nora Brockstedt	"Voi Voi"
10	Spanish	1961	Spain	Conchita Bautista	"Estando contigo"
11	Finnish	1961	Finland	Laila Kinnunen	"Valoa ikkunassa"
12	Serbian^{[see 2]}	1961	Yugoslavia	Ljiljana Petrović	"Neke davne zvezde" (Неке давне звезде)
13	Croatian^{[see 2]}	1963	Yugoslavia	Vice Vukov	"Brodovi"
14	Portuguese	1964	Portugal	António Calvário	"Oração"
15	Bosnian^{[see 2]}	1964	Yugoslavia	Sabahudin Kurt	"Život je sklopio krug"
16	Slovene	1966	Yugoslavia	Berta Ambrož	"Brez besed"
17	Viennese	1971	Austria	Marianne Mendt	"Musik"
18	Maltese	1971	Malta	Joe Grech	"Marija l-Maltija"
19	Irish	1972	Ireland	Sandie Jones	"Ceol an Ghrá"
20	Hebrew	1973	Israel	Ilanit	"Ey Sham" (אי שם)
21	Greek	1974	Greece	Marinella	"Krasi, Thalassa Kai T' Agori Mou" (Κρασί, θάλασσα και τ' αγόρι μου)
22	Turkish	1975	Turkey	Semiha Yankı	"Seninle Bir Dakika"
23	Arabic	1980	Morocco	Samira Bensaid	"Bitaqat Khub" (بطاقة حب)
24	Icelandic	1986	Iceland	ICY	"Gleðibankinn"
25	Romansh	1989	Switzerland	Furbaz	"Viver senza tei"
26	Neapolitan	1991	Italy	Peppino di Capri	"Comme è ddoce 'o mare"
27	Haitian Creole	1992	France	Kali	"Monté la riviè"
28	Corsican	1993	France	Patrick Fiori	"Mama Corsica"
29	Estonian	1994	Estonia	Silvi Vrait	"Nagu merelaine"
30	Romanian	1994	Romania	Dan Bittman	"Dincolo de nori"
31	Slovak	1994	Slovakia	Tublatanka	"Nekonečná pieseň"
32	Lithuanian	1994	Lithuania	Ovidijus Vyšniauskas	"Lopšinė mylimai"
33	Hungarian	1994	Hungary	Friderika Bayer	"Kinek mondjam el vétkeimet?"
34	Russian	1994	Russia	Youddiph	"Vyechniy stranik" (Вечный стрaнник)
35	Polish	1994	Poland	Edyta Górniak	"To nie ja"
36	Vorarlbergish	1996	Austria	Georg Nussbaumer	"Weil's dr guat got"
37	Breton	1996	France	Dan Ar Braz	"Diwanit Bugale"
38	Macedonian	1998	Macedonia	Vlado Janevski	"Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро)
39	Samogitian	1999	Lithuania	Aistė	"Strazdas"
40	Constructed language	2003	Belgium	Urban Trad	"Sanomi"
41	Latvian	2004	Latvia	Fomins & Kleins	"Dziesma par laimi"
42	Catalan	2004	Andorra	Marta Roure	"Jugarem a estimar-nos"
43	Ukrainian	2004	Ukraine	Ruslana	"Wild Dances"
44	Võro	2004	Estonia	Neiokõsõ	"Tii"
45	Montenegrin	2005	Serbia and Montenegro	No Name	"Zauvijek moja"
46	Albanian	2006	Albania	Luiz Ejlli	"Zjarr e ftohtë"
47	Tahitian	2006	Monaco	Séverine Ferrer	"La Coco-Dance"
48	Bulgarian	2007	Bulgaria	Elitsa Todorova & Stoyan Yankoulov	"Water"
49	Czech	2007	Czech Republic	Kabát	"Malá dáma"
50	Armenian	2007	Armenia	Hayko	"Anytime You Need"
51	Romani	2009	Czech Republic	Gipsy.cz	"Aven Romale"
52	Swahili	2011	Norway	Stella Mwangi	"Haba Haba"
53	Udmurt	2012	Russia	Buranovskiye Babushki	"Party for Everybody"

Source: The Diggiloo Thrush

^ Austria has sent two entries to the contest in dialects of German: "Weil der Mensch zählt" was sung in the Styrian dialect in 2003, while "Woki mit deim Popo" was sung in the Mühlviertlerisch dialect in 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c At the time of Yugoslavia's existence the common name for these languages was Serbo-Croatian. The term Croatian came into use during the seventies; Serbian and Bosnian evolved politically in the 1990s (see Serbo-Croatian for more details). Another view is that the first post-breakup entries can be considered the first for the respective languages: "Ljubim te pesmama" for Serbian in 1992, "Sva bol svijeta" for Bosnian in 1993, and "Don't Ever Cry" for Croatian, also in 1993.

[edit] Opposition to English singing in non-anglophone countries

French legislator François-Michel Gonnot has criticized the French television and launched an official complaint on the French Parliament, as the song which represented France in 2008, "Divine", was sung in English.^[1]

[edit] "Eurovision Song Contest" in the national languages

This is what the 'Eurovision Song Contest' is called in the official languages of current and past participant countries of the contest.

Language	Countries which language has official status in	Name in language
Albanian	Albania	Festivali Evropian i Këngës
Arabic	Israel, Morocco	مسابقة يوروفيجن للأغاني
Armenian	Armenia	Եվրատեսիլ երգի մրցույթ
Azerbaijani	Azerbaijan	Avroviziya Mahnı Müsabiqəsi
Belarusian	Belarus	Конкурс песні Еўрабачанне
Bosnian	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Pjesma Evrovizije
Bulgarian	Bulgaria	Песенен конкурс Евровизия
Catalan	Andorra, Spain	Festival de la Cançó d'Eurovisió
Croatian	Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia	Pjesma Eurovizije
Czech	Czech Republic	elká cena Eurovize
Danish	Denmark	Eurovision Song Contest
Dutch	Belgium, Netherlands	Eurovisiesongfestival
English	Ireland, Malta, United Kingdom	Eurovision Song Contest
Estonian	Estonia	Eurovisiooni lauluvõistlus
Finnish	Finland	Eurovision laulukilpailu
French	Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Monaco, Switzerland	Concours Eurovision de la Chanson
Georgian	Georgia	ევროვიზიის სიმღერის კონკურსი
German	Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland	Eurovision Song Contest
Greek	Cyprus, Greece	Διαγωνισμός Τραγουδιού Eurovision
Hebrew	Israel	אירוויזיון
Hungarian	Hungary	Eurovíziós Dalfesztivál
Icelandic	Iceland	Söngvakeppni evrópskra sjónvarpsstöðva
Irish	Ireland	Comórtas Amhránaíochta na hEoraifíse
Italian	Italy, San Marino, Switzerland	Concorso Eurovisione della Canzone
Latvian	Latvia	Eirovīzijas dziesmu konkurss
Lithuanian	Lithuania	Eurovizijos dainų konkursas
Luxembourgish	Luxembourg	Eurovision Song Contest
Macedonian	Macedonia	Евровизија
Maltese	Malta	Festival tal-Eurovision
Montenegrin	Montenegro	Evrovizija
Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norway	Eurovisjonens musikkonkurranse
Polish	Poland	Konkurs Piosenki Eurowizji
Portuguese	Portugal	Festival Eurovisão da Canção
Romanian (Moldovan)	Moldova, Romania	Concursul Muzical Eurovision
Romansh	Switzerland	Eurovision Song Contest
Russian	Belarus, Russia	Конкурс песни Евровидение
Serbian	Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia	Песма Евровизије
Slovak	Slovakia	Veľká cena Eurovízie
Slovene	Slovenia	Pesem Evrovizije
Spanish	Spain	Festival de la Canción de Eurovisión
Swedish	Finland, Sweden	Eurovisionen Melodifestivalen
Turkish	Cyprus, Turkey	Eurovision Şarkı Yarışması
Ukrainian	Ukraine	Пісенний конкурс Євробачення