Eurovision Stops Requiring National Languages

MAY 15 1999 · 12:15

EBU · 1999 Placement: Rule change · Venue: International Convention Center · Host: Jerusalem, Israel · Type: language rule break · Broadcast: satellite Ahead of Eurovision 1999 in Jerusalem, the EBU abolished the rule that had required participating countries to perform in an official, national or regional language of the country they represented. The rule had existed in various forms since 1966, been briefly lifted between 1973 and 1976, reinstated from 1977 onward, and reportedly come under increasing pressure through the 1990s as smaller-language markets argued that the linguistic requirement structurally penalised them in an increasingly English-dominant European pop landscape. Of the 23 songs at Eurovision 1999, reportedly 14 included English lyrics — a sudden and visible inversion of the contest's previous linguistic character. Sweden's Charlotte Nilsson won with 'Take Me to Your Heaven,' performed in English. Within a decade, performing in a language other than English had become a minority choice; within two decades, most Eurovision editions featured English-language entries for a clear majority of competing songs. The rule change is reportedly the single most consequential aesthetic reform in Eurovision's history. Context The national-language rule had been debated at the EBU since at least the late 1980s, when ABBA's 1974 English-language win (performed during a language-free window) was retrospectively invoked as evidence that lifting the rule produced winning pop. The late 1990s pressure reportedly came most strongly from Nordic and Benelux broadcasters whose domestic pop industries were already operating in English. Ireland and the UK had always been permitted English because English was their national language — a structural asymmetry widely considered unfair by non-English-official participants. Legacy The 1999 rule change is widely considered the turning point that made modern Eurovision aesthetically coherent with the rest of European pop. It also launched a long and unresolved cultural argument about whether the contest has lost linguistic diversity and whether a return to the rule would be desirable. Mythology The rule is sometimes reported as having been abolished once in the contest's history; in fact, it was lifted (1973-1976), reinstated (1977), and abolished again (1999). The claim that 'every winner since 1999 has been in English' is reportedly inaccurate — exceptions include Serbia 2007 ('Molitva') and Portugal 2017 ('Amar pelos dois'), among others.