English Past Tense At The Eurovision Song Contest

Old Slavic, Lithuanian, Latvian and Albanian: you will hear it all at this Song Contest. 24 of the 37 participating countries do not sing (partly) in English. That is a record. Since 1999, there have not been so many different languages ​​heard at the Eurovision Song Contest.

It is a common complaint every year: if everyone sings in English, we will not learn anything about each other’s cultures? Shouldn’t the Song Contest simply have the rule that each country sings in its own language?

But anyone who really follows the Song Contest knows that there has been an emerging trend for years: leaving English for what it is and just singing in your native language again.

Singing in the national language has been on the rise since 2018. The fear that people will not understand songs because they do not understand the lyrics has somewhat passed.

This year, 65 percent of the countries do not sing in English, as you can see on the map below. Last year, that was just under half of the participants.

That difference is largely due to the Big Five. These are the countries that automatically go through to the final every year because they are big moneymakers: France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.

This year, for the first time since 1998, they are all singing in their own language.

Germany did not dare for years. In 2007, 2001 and 2000, the country sang in German, but also in English. The fact that Abor & Tynna are singing their Baller entirely in German is therefore a real trend break for the country.