Most of my recent posts have been about films, and I think it’s time to do something slightly different. So today I’m going to talk about the relationship between the Eurovision song contest and languages, two of my favourite things to talk about. This is a abridged, updated version of a part of my EPQ which was about the same topic. For people who don’t know what that is, the EPQ (or Extended Project Qualification) is a thing you can do as part of A-levels (the qualification you take when you are 18 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) where you research any topic that you want and then produce a product (which can be anything you want) based on said research. For me, the topic was Eurovision and the product was an essay. Language and Eurovision was one of the four areas which I researched. In the future I might do a similar thing with the other three parts.

The shift of language in Europe, from French to English

In the eyes of many native English speakers, there is no point in learning a foreign language as everyone speaks English (you only have to look in the comments section of any article about foreign languages to see how many people hold this view). ‘Proof’ for this point of view can be seen, in . . . Eurovision? Looking at the modern contest, you can see this clearly. 35 of the 42 songs (83%) in the 2017 contest (there would have been 43, but Russia withdrew from the contest) were entirely in English, three songs (7%) were partially in a language that was not English (these were the entries of France[1], Spain[2], and Croatia[3]), and only four songs (about 10% of songs) were entirely in languages other than English. This dominance of the English language has been appearing in Eurovision for quite some time.

For the first nine contests, countries only competed in one of their official languages (this was more of a de facto thing than de jure at this point). This gave the French language, and to a lesser extent the German language, total dominance over the contest. France, Belgium, Monaco, Luxemburg, and Switzerland could all compete in French; Germany, Austria, and Switzerland all could compete in German (technically Luxemburg and Belgium could also compete in German, but they never chose to). The French monopoly can be clearly seen in the first Eurovision contest in 1956, where half of the fourteen songs were in French (each country entering two songs inflated this figure). In 1965, this unwritten rule was broken for the first time. Sweden’s song, ‘Absent Friends’, was in English[4]. Although this might seem like a minor event nowadays, this was incredibly controversial at the time. ‘Absent Friends’ led to the introduction of a rule requiring songs to be sung in an official language of their country (despite the controversy, Sweden’s song only placed 10/18 and was beaten by both other English language songs[5]). Within the seven years of the rule’s existence, the English language won its first three contests (in 1967,1969,1970).

The death of the French monopoly began to become visible in the 1973 contest (the first contest after the lifting of the language rule in 1972). Five of the seventeen songs were in English (an equal number of songs were in French). The French language managed one last win, marking the end of a period where French language songs had won over half of all the contests, with Luxemburg’s ‘Tu Te Reconnaîtras’. The next three contests were won by a series of English language songs. In 1974, Abba won the contest with ‘Waterloo’, which is still the most popular song in Eurovision’s history (according to polls in 2005 marking the 50th anniversary of the contest[6]). This marked the first time that an English song by a country where English was not an official language won the contest. The next year followed the same trend, with the Netherlands’ entry, ‘Ding-a-Dong’ by Teach-in, winning the contest. The only song that came close to the Dutch score of 152 was the English entry, with a score of 138. For the first time in the contest, almost half of the songs were at least partially in English (seven of the nineteen songs were completely in English, while another two included lyrics in both English and another language). The 1975 contest also saw a huge drop in the number of French entries: only three songs were in French. In the previous year, there had been an equal number of English and French language entries (five of each).

The French had been fighting to protect their language from English for a long time. L’Académie Française was founded in 1635, with the aim of simplifying the French language in order to make it accessible to all. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the job of L’Académie has become to protect the French language from ‘foreign invasions’. They create French alternatives to English loan words (for example ‘le meilleur de’ being used as a replacement for ‘le best of’[7]). Often, their alternative words are long and convoluted, and are completely ignored (‘la fin de la semaine’ is rarely used when compared to ‘le weekend’). In the same year that French was finally eclipsed in the contest, the Bas-Lauriol was passed in France. This law was the latest attempt by the French government to defend the language, this time by banning other languages from advertising. The language rules in the contest can almost be seen as a microcosm of the French language laws.

The language rules from 1966 were reintroduced in 1977, after three consecutive English language victories, with the hope of stopping this English dominance. To some degree, the rule worked. Songs in different languages began to win the contest, with victories from Israel, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Yugoslavia, Italy, and others. Despite more variety in the victors, English and French dominated the top of the table, filling the top 3 in most years. There were four French language victories (most notably Céline Dion’s ‘Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi’) and eight English language victories. Six of these English victories were by Ireland. It’s difficult to discern whether these Irish victories were because of the language rules, or simply because the Irish entries were good music; however, Ireland only ever won the contest during periods where the language rule was present (they also won in 1970, during the first language rule). Ireland have also only ever won the contest with English language songs. In fact, they have only entered a song in the Irish language once.

EU statistics for languages are non-existent at this point, so it is difficult to compare the languages in the contest with the languages spoken across Europe. The first time that multilingualism and attitudes to language were surveyed in Europe was in 2001, and then another survey was carried out in 2005[8]. In both of these surveys, English was found to be the most widely spoken foreign language. 32% of Europeans spoke English well enough to hold a conversation, and this number had risen to 38% by 2005. Comparing these numbers to the number of English language songs in these years, it can be seen that the contest may not accurately represent the languages of Europe. In 2001, 87% of the 23 songs in the contest were at least partially in English, with 61% of the songs being completely in English. In the 2005 contest, fewer songs were at least partially in English (76%) but the number of songs completely in English remained around the same level (62%). The decrease in the percentage of songs at least partially in English can be explained to some degree by the system of semi-finals, which had been introduced in the 2002 contest. This system saw the Big Four (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom) and the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year automatically qualify for the grand final. The other countries competed in a semi-final, with the top ten countries from this moving on to the grand final. There were more songs and in previous years songs purely in English had done better than songs partially in English or in other languages (the exception to this was the winning song of the 2004 contest, which was in English and Ukrainian).

The amount of songs in English may not represent the number of individuals who spoke English as a foreign language at this point, but they may more accurately represent how widespread English was at that time. English was the most widely spoken foreign language in 19 of the 27 countries surveyed (excluding the UK and Ireland), and is one of the three most widely spoken foreign languages in all 27 of them (the EU and Turkey). 70% of the countries having English as their most common foreign language is much closer to the figures in the 2001 and the 2005 contests. The percentages for perceived usefulness of language also more closely relate to the percentage of songs in English. According to Special Eurobarometer 243 (an EU survey about languages), 68% of people surveyed believed that English was the most useful foreign language to learn, and English was perceived to be the most useful foreign language in 26 of the 27 EU countries (and Turkey, excluding the UK and Ireland). Only Luxemburg didn’t have English as its most useful language (it instead chose French, but this can be explained by the everyday use of French in Luxemburg.

The other figure which relates to the percentage of songs in English at the contest is the percentage of English songs in the European charts. In the May 21st, 2005 European charts, 64% of the songs were in English[9]. This very closely relates to the number of songs entirely in English in the contest, which is consistently around 62%. Perhaps the contest may not represent the number of English speakers in Europe, but it may represent the popularity of English language music across Europe.

The next language-related Eurobarometer survey was carried out in 2012[10]. Many of the figures remained similar to the earlier survey results, with no change in the number of individuals who could speak English (this figure remained at 38%), English remained the most commonly spoken second language in 19 EU countries (Turkey wasn’t included in the 2012 Eurobarometer) and one of the three most popular languages in every single country (excluding the UK and Ireland), while 67% of Europeans viewed English as the most useful language to learn. The number of English songs in the European charts also remained similar, with 65% of the songs in the 30th May 2012 chart (the first one after the contest) being in English[11]. The only real difference between 2005 and 2012 is the number of English songs in the contest. In 2012, 71% of the songs were partially in English, and 57% of the songs were completely in English. Does this drop in English language mean anything?

In the short term, it maybe did. The percentage of English songs also dropped in the 2013 contest. But in the long term, this decrease in the percentage of English language songs didn’t last. In 2014, the contest saw the highest percentage of English language songs in its history. And this happened again in 2015. And in 2016. And in 2017. Something was different in the 2016 and 2017 contests though. In 2016 Jamala won the contest with ‘1944’, a song partially in Crimean Tartar. The 2017 contest saw Portugal’s Salvidor Sobral win the country’s first ever victory (after 50 losses) with Amar Pelos Dois, a song entirely in Portuguese. Two years don’t constitute a trend though, and 2018 saw the victory of an English-language song in the form of ‘Toy’ by Netta. Some countries might have seen this ‘trend’, as 33% of songs in the 2018 were not in English, although this may just be a coincidence. If the contest is truly going to represent Europe, the Europe where 38% of people speak English as a second language and 67% of people think English is the most important foreign language to learn, then maybe it’s best for the contest if this does become a trend.

In conclusion, English is definitely the dominant language of both Europe and Eurovision. Whilst the figures may not perfectly add up, English is the most widely spoken language across the EU, and the most popular foreign language is most EU countries. The hegemony of the English language can clearly be seen in the contest, with its high number of English-language songs in recent contests and 46.3% of the winning songs (from 16 different countries) being sung at least partially in the English language. Of course, events like Brexit could end this supremacy in Europe, and the 2016 and 2017 victories could represent a new era of multilingualism in the contest. Personally, I would like to see an increase in acts singing in languages other than English in the future, both because it would mean that the contest would become a better representation of the linguistic diversity of Europe and it would lead to a more interesting, diverse contest.

I hope that this has been an interesting essay. It’s very different to what I usually do, and may be too academic-y. There may be more of these coming in the future, possibly a mix of other ones from my EPQ and new topics (I’d like to touch upon regional languages in the contest among other things). Sorry for the slightly messed up referencing, the references which are present are copied from my original essay but I couldn’t work out how to add new ones.

[1] Alma – Requiem (France) LIVE at the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest [Youtube video], Eurovision Song Contest, 13 May 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjiLKsLQl4I>

>[2] Manel Navarro – Do It For Your Lover (Spain) LIVE at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest [Youtube video], Eurovision Song Contest, 13 May 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAOXHdLdlqQ>%5Baccessed 24 August 2017]

[3] Jacques Houdek – My Friend (Croatia) LIVE at the Grand Final of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest [Youtube video], Eurovision Song Contest, 13 May 2017, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sya_GIxsw0>

[4] Ingvar Wixell – Absent Friends (Eurovision 1965- Sweden) [Youtube video], 12 September 2015, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVFYRtLkvA8>

[5] Eurovision 1965 results: voting and points, <http://eurovisionworld.com/?eurovision=1965>

[6] Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest [Youtube video], 23 March 2013, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMpQeHhDygc>

[7]Henry Samuel, The Telegraph, France’s Académie française battles to protect language from English, 11 October 2011, <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8820304/Frances-Academie-francaise-battles-to-protect-language-from-English.html>

[8] European Commission, Europeans and their Languages, Febuary 2006

[9] Europe official Top 100, (21 May 2005), <http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=31&date=2005-05-21>

[10] European Commission, Europeans and their Languages, June 2012

[11] Europe official Top 100, (30 May 2012), <http://top40-charts.com/chart.php?cid=31&date=2012-05-30>