Eurovision 2025 was a good vintage for lovers of language diversity. It’s clear that English isn’t a default for many countries any more, and ditching the lingua franca is certainly no bar to success.
In the first semifinal, for example, the five jettisoned entries were all in English , while nine of the ten qualifiers contained national language lyrics. The second semifinal was less kind, ditching Georgian, Montenegrin and Serbian in the last three places, but still, seven out of the ten successful songs chose not to rely entirely (or at all) on English.
And then, of course, to the final. After a pretty intense finish, it’s time for a stocktake. Just how, exactly, did our foreign languages fare?
A good start – and a good finish
The final promised much, with 21 of the 26 entries sung fully, or partly, in a language other than English. Admittedly, for the third year in a row, we do have another anglophone winner, although a wonderful one, with Austria’s sensational popera number Wasted Love by captivating countertenor JJ.
But our top ten is an encouraging one for fans of non-anglophone lyrics. Runner-up Israel manages to squeeze another two languages in alongside English, with lines in both Hebrew and French. A single point behind, Estonia managed third place with arguably Anglo-Italian (or is it Mocktalian?) lyrics. Favourites Sweden, showcasing the national language for the first time since 1998, unexpectedly just missed out on the top three.
The rest of the top ten is made up almost exclusively of songs with national tongue lyrics – Italian, Greek, French, Albanian and Ukrainian. And if we take the coveted left-hand side of the scoreboard as the measure of general success at Eurovision, then we can add Finnish and Latvian to the list too.
Eurovision 2026 – Onwards and Upwards!
And that’s it for another year. Huge, deserved congratulations to Austria on its win, English lyrics or otherwise. Here’s hoping that the success of national languages in 2025 tempts even more countries to dare to switch back in 2026!