List of languages in the Eurovision Song Contest

The following list is of languages used in the Eurovision Song Contest since its inception in 1956, including songs performed in finals and, since 2004, semi-finals.
The rules concerning the language of the entries have been changed several times. In the past, the contest's organisers have sometimes compelled countries to only sing in their own national languages, but since 1999 no such restriction has existed.

History

From until, there was no rule restricting the language in which the songs could be sung. For example, Ingvar Wixell representing, sang his song "Absent Friend" in English. After this, a rule was imposed that a song must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating. This new language policy remained in place until.
From 1973 to inclusive, participants were allowed to enter songs in any language. Several winners took advantage of this, with songs in English by countries where other languages are spoken, this included ABBA's "Waterloo" representing, and Teach-In's "Ding-a-dong" representing the.
In, the European Broadcasting Union reimposed the national language restriction. However, and were given a special dispensation to use English, as their national song selection procedures were already too advanced to change. During the language rule, the only countries which were allowed to sing in English were Ireland, Malta, and the United Kingdom as English is an official language in those countries. The restriction was imposed from 1977 to.
From onwards, a free choice of language was again allowed. Since then, several participating broadcasters have chosen songs that mixed languages, often English and the national language of their country. Prior to that, songs such as "Don't Ever Cry", "One Step", and "Goodbye" had a title and one line of the song in a non-native language. Edyta Górniak, representing, caused a scandal when she broke the rules by singing her song in English during the dress rehearsal. Only six participating broadcasters demanded that Poland should be disqualified, and with the rules requiring at least 13 of them to complain, the proposed removal did not occur.
Since, some songs have used constructed languages : two Belgian entries were entirely written in constructed languages: "Sanomi" in and "O Julissi" in. "Amambanda", representing the, was sung partly in English and partly in a conlang.
The entry which used the most languages was "It's Just a Game", which represented. It was performed in English and French, with some lyrics in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, Gaelic, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew, Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian. "Love Unlimited", representing, had mainly lyrics in Bulgarian, but with phrases in Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, French, Balkan Romani, Italian, Azerbaijani, Arabic and English. "Pozdrav svijetu", representing, was mainly sung in Croatian, but also had phrases in Spanish, German, French, English, Dutch, Italian, Russian, and Finnish.
For the first time since the reintroduction of a free choice of language in 1999, more than half of the entries of the were in their representative country's national language. Out of 37 entries, 26 at least partially contained one of their national languages. The remaining 11 entries were in languages other than their national languages, and this was the first contest since 1998 where less than half of the songs were fully in English. Sweden was represented by a song in Swedish for the first time, Germany was represented by a song mainly in German for the first time, and Latvia was represented by a song entirely in Latvian for the second time in its history, with the other being.
the only country that has never entered a song completely in one or more of its national languages is, which has never entered a song fully in the Azerbaijani language. has never used Monégasque, its traditional national language, but French is Monaco's official and most commonly spoken language, and all of Monaco's entries have been entirely or primarily in French.
On the other hand, as of 2025 there are ten countries whose representatives have performed all their songs at least partially in an official, regional or national language:,,,,,,,, and the. In addition, former countries and and current countries Australia, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom, Monaco and Morocco have only been represented by songs fully in an official language.
The only editions not to feature any English-language entries were 1956 and, while was the first time in the history of the event that no entry was performed in French – with the two being the official languages of the contest. In 1956 and 1958, no Anglophone country participated, whereas in 2022, the three Francophone participants entered songs in English and Breton respectively. While non-Francophone countries have in the past sent entries wholly or partially in French, none did so in 2022.

Criticism

French legislator François-Michel Gonnot criticised broadcaster France Télévisions and launched an official complaint in the French Parliament, as the song which represented, "Divine" by Sébastien Tellier, was sung in English. A similar incident occurred again in 2014, when Ruth Lorenzo was criticised by the Royal Spanish Academy after winning the with her song "Dancing in the Rain", which contained some lyrics in English.

Spoken languages in the contest

The following natural languages have appeared in at least one competing entry in the Eurovision Song Contest:

Language families

Most Europeans speak one or several Indo-European languages as a first language, second language or both. Of the main branches of Indo-European, Germanic and Romance have been represented at every contest. Balto-Slavic languages, another branch of Indo-European with hundreds of millions of speakers, were first introduced to the contest by Yugoslavia and have become more common after the end of the Cold War as more and more countries with a Slavic national language participated. The Baltic subgroup of Baltoslavic has only sporadically appeared as these languages have few speakers outside Lithuania and Latvia. Smaller branches such as Hellenic languages, Albanoid, Celtic languages, Armenian languages and others have likewise depended on whether the national broadcaster representing that language participates and selects an entry in that language. For example despite Irish being de jure a co-official national language in Ireland, there has been only one Irish-language entry, but two in Breton, a language that has been actively fought against by the French state in the 20th century. While the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European includes some of the most spoken languages in the world, few people in EBU member states speak one of those languages and thus their presence at Eurovision thus far has been minimal.
Non-Indo-European languages have been appearing since the 1960s. The first group to appear were the Uralic languages which include Northern Sámi, Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. In the 1970s Semitic languages which have been represented by the Maltese language, Hebrew and various varieties of Arabic first appeared in the contest. The Turkic languages have mostly been represented by Turkey. As Turkey hasn't participated since 2012, the representation of Turkic languages has decreased.
Besides those languages that have notable communities of native speakers in EBU member states, there have been conlangs, languages from outside the EBU area as well as "dead" classical languages such as Ancient Greek, Sanskrit or Classical Latin used for songs, their titles or parts of their lyrics.

Spoken languages and their first appearance

Spoken languages are fully counted below when they are used in at least an entire verse or chorus of a song. First brief uses of a language and first uses of dialects are also noted.

Order

Language

First
appearance

Country

First performer

First song

Dutch

Jetty Paerl

"De vogels van Holland"

"Das alte Karussell"

"Messieurs les noyés de la Seine"

"Aprite le finestre"

"All"

–

phrases in Spanish

Margot Hielscher

"Telefon, Telefon"

Danish

Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler

"Skibet skal sejle i nat"

"So laang we's du do bast"

Norwegian

Nora Brockstedt

"Voi Voi"

–

title in Northern Sámi

"Voi Voi"

"Valoa ikkunassa"

"Neke davne zvezde"

"Oração"

"Brez besed"

–

phrases in Russian

Ivan and 4M

"Pozdrav svijetu"

–

"Musik"

"Marija l-Maltija"

"Ceol an Ghrá"

"Ey Sham"

"Krasi, thalassa kai t'agori mou"

Turkish

Semiha Yankı

"Seninle Bir Dakika"

–

title in Latin

Monica Aspelund

"Lapponia"

Arabic

Samira Said

"Bitaqat Hub"

–

phrases in Northern Sámi

Sverre Kjelsberg and Mattis Hætta

"Gleðibankinn"

"Viver senza tei"

–

"Fri?"

"Comme è ddoce 'o mare"

Martinican Creole

Kali

"Monté la riviè"

Serbian Escyr|2010Esc|Finlandlang\|fi|Työlki ellää|i=unsetEscyr|2011Esc|NorwayEscyr|2011Esc|Francelang\|co|Sognu|i=unsetEscyr|2012Esc|Albanialang\|la|SuusEscyr|2012Esc|RussiaEscyr|2012Esc|Austrialang\|bar|Woki mit deim Popo|i=unsetEscyr|2012Esc|BulgariaEscyr|2012Esc|GeorgiaEscyr|2013Esc|North Macedonia|name=Macedonialang\|mk-latn|Pred da se razdeni|i=unsetlang\|mk|Пред да се раздени)Escyr|2013Esc|Croatialang\|hr|MižerjaEscyr|2016Esc|GreeceEscyr|2016Esc|UkraineEscyr|2017Esc|Belaruslang\|be|Гісторыя майго жыццяEscyr|2017Esc|Italylang\|it|Occidentali's KarmaEscyr|2018Esc|GeorgiaEscyr|2018Esc|Serbialang\|sr-latn|Nova decalang\|sr|Нова децаEscyr|2019Esc|GeorgiaEscyr|2020Esc|Israellang\|am-latn|Feker Libilang\|am|ፍቅር ልቤEscyr|2021Esc|NetherlandsEscyr|2022Esc|Serbialang\|la|In corpore sano|i=noEscyr|2024Esc|AustraliaEscyr|2024Esc|Azerbaijanlang\|az|Özünlə apar|i=noEscyr|2024Esc|IrelandEscyr|2025Esc|EstoniaEscyr|2025Esc|PolandEscyr|2025Esc|SwedenEsc|Moldova

Winners by language

Between 1966 and 1972, and again between 1977 and 1998, countries were only permitted to perform in a official, national, or regional language of their country. Since language restrictions were last lifted in 1999, only four songs in non-English languages have won: "Molitva" wan performed in Serbian, "Amar pelos dois" in Portuguese, "Zitti e buoni" in Italian, and "Stefania" in Ukrainian. Also, the winning entries for and combined lyrics in English with Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar, respectively.
In 2017, "Amar pelos dois" became the first Portuguese-language song to win the contest, the first winner since 2007 to both be in a language that had never produced a winning song before and be entirely in a language other than English. Among all Eurovision winning entries, only Ukraine's were performed in more than one language.
2021 was the first year since 1995, and the first since language restrictions were last lifted in 1999, that the top three songs were all sung in a non-English language: Italian and French.

Wins	Language	Years	Countries
37	English	1967, 1969, 1970, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, 2025	United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Finland, Russia, Norway, Germany, Azerbaijan, Austria, Israel, Switzerland
15	French	1956, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1983, 1986, 1988	Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Austria, Monaco, Belgium
3	Dutch	1957, 1959, 1969	Netherlands
3	Italian	1964, 1990, 2021	Italy
3	Hebrew	1978, 1979, 1998	Israel
2	German	1966, 1982	Austria, Germany
2	Spanish	1968, 1969	Spain
2	Swedish	1984, 1991	Sweden
2	Norwegian	1985, 1995	Norway
2	Ukrainian	2004, 2022	Ukraine
1	Danish	1963	Denmark
1	Serbo-Croatian	1989	Yugoslavia
1	Serbian	2007	Serbia
1	Crimean Tatar	2016	Ukraine
1	Portuguese	2017	Portugal

Entries in constructed languages

Three times in the history of the contest, songs have been sung, wholly or partially, in constructed languages or gibberish.

Appearance	Country	Performer	Song
2003		Urban Trad	"Sanomi"
2006		Treble	"Amambanda"
2008		Ishtar	"O Julissi"

Performances with sign languages

Some performances have included phrases in sign languages on stage.

Appearance	Country	Sign language	Performer	Song
2005		Latvian Sign Language	Walters & Kazha	"The War Is Not Over"
2006		Polish Sign Language	Ich Troje	"Follow My Heart"
2011		Lithuanian Sign Language	Evelina Sašenko	"C'est ma vie"
2015		Yugoslav Sign Language	Bojana Stamenov	"Beauty Never Lies"
2019		French Sign Language	Bilal Hassani	"Roi"