Since Jamala’s bilingual winning song “1944” and Salvador Sobral’s Portuguese winner “Amar pelos dois”, we’ve seen a massive increase in non-English songs at Eurovision. But how did these songs stack up at Eurovision 2018? We take a look at the non-English songs that competed in Lisbon.

Please note: we are not counting songs in English that may have used an occasional word from another language.

13. Georgia: Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao – “For You”

Language: Georgian
Place: 18th in the semi-final with 24 points, 5% of available points

While Georgia’s song had an English title, it was the first Georgian Eurovision entry to have lyrics entirely in Georgian. Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao brought a pleasant moment of calmness to the middle of the second semi-final, but their rich harmonies were not enough to get the group to the grand final, finishing last in the semi.

12. Montenegro: Vanja Radovanović – “Inje”

Language: Montenegrin
Place: 16th in the semi-final with 40 points, 8.33% of available points

The two times Montenegro has qualified for the grand final, it’s been with a Balkan ballad with Montenegrin lyrics. But history was not about to repeat in Lisbon with “Inje” (Frost). Vanja Radovanović finished 16th in the semi-final, with only 40 points.

11. Armenia: Sevak Khanagyan – “Qami”

Language: Armenian
Place: 15th in the semi-final with 79 points, 15.67% of available points

Sevak Khanagyan won national final Depi Evratesil, meaning that his song “Qami” (Wind) would be the first Eurovision entry sung entirely in Armenian. However, the emotional ballad didn’t have enough support to make it to the grand final in Lisbon. The 15th-place semi-final finish of “Qami” broke Armenia’s five-year qualification streak.

10. Greece: Yianna Terzi – “Oniro mou”

Language: Greek
Place: 14th in the semi-final with 81 points, 16.07% of available points

Greece hasn’t done badly in the past with Greek song lyrics — “Opa!” placed 8th in 2010. However despite having huge support from Greek fans, “Oniro mou” (My dream) was not so successful in 2018. While the song placed 10th with the televote, a lower jury score ensured it missed out on qualifying, finishing in 14th place.

9. Portugal: Cláudia Pascoal – “O jardim”

Language: Portuguese
Place: 26th in the grand final with 39 points, 3.87% of available points

In 2017, Portugal delivered the second non-English song to win Eurovision since the free-language era began. This year they stuck with the Portuguese language, but the tender ballad “O jardim” (The garden) did not enjoy the same success. Portugal join Austria 2015 in being a host country that finished in last place.

8. Spain: Amaia y Alfred – “Tu canción”

Language: Spanish
Place: 23rd in the grand final with 61 points, 6.05% of available points

OT 2017 sweethearts Amaia and Alfred sparked renewed interest in Eurovision amongst Spanish viewers. However, their love ballad “Tu canción” (Your song) didn’t melt the hearts of many viewers outside the Iberian peninsula. The 23rd-place finish was, however, better than Spain’s last placing in 2017.

Next… we look at the remaining non-English songs and see how they did.

What do you think? Can a country do well with a non-English song? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Read more of our lists here

48 Comments
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RianRravi
RianRravi
5 years ago

I liked Spain a lot

AngieP
AngieP
5 years ago

There were really good non english songs this year. In this list, I liked Montenegro and Armenia. Both beautiful songs.

I do think that a country can do well with a song in its native language. It all depends on the song and the artist, the whole act actually. That’s when the message will come across despite the language.

Jackson
Jackson
5 years ago

there are lot of different languages in europe and this diversity needs to be shown, before 2016 almost all country presented a generic pop song in english, this year was more dynamic, more representative but unfortunately people forget the eurovision is about the song and not about the pyrotecnics and when it happens the things ended up like this year

Jui
Jui
5 years ago

As long as you speak the political language well, you can win this contest with any song. Let’s do thiiiiis!!!

Mark
Mark
5 years ago

The non-English trend ended before it really got started

Alex
Alex
5 years ago

It is a scandal how juries ignored Portugal in the final, yet they massively supported it last year! So weird. It’s also a bit wtf to see juries supporting Albania’s song which was very inferior compared to Portugal.

Ern
Ern
5 years ago
Reply to  Alex

I agree about Portugal. I’m shocked it ended-up in last place.

The Albanian entry was OK, but Portugal certainly underperformed.

Juan Cena
Juan Cena
5 years ago

In my opinion, “O Jardim” was undermined by its lackluster production. The vocals were beautiful, but the backing music never really took off. The piano/synthesizer and guitar came off as sounding like something from a generic late 80’s pop ballad. I think it might have needed some strings instead of guitar.

Denis
Denis
5 years ago

Language is incidental. What matters is the song. If it is a good song people vill vote for it. Last year all non-English songs made it to final because they were good. This year most flopped because they weren’t good. Nothing stood out with them.
I really do think language has started to become second fiddle in ESC these Days..

Davve
Davve
5 years ago

ESC fans always say that they love National language songs and that countries should send songs in non english. But at ESC those songsr rarely makes an impact at ESC. So the fans make the artists a huge non favour.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Davve

People vote for what they like, regardless the language.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

I’m still cackling at how Greece failed to qualify despite having its main buddies Albania, Bulgaria and Cyprus ALL in its semi! It’s beyond me… it clearly shows that if you have a song where you do whale sounds for three minutes, you’re going nowhere no matter what country you represent.

Ern
Ern
5 years ago

Don’t exaggerate!

There were no “whale sounds” for three minutes. There were only whale sounds for ONE minute at the end, when she (attempted) to sing those high notes. The other two minute were her looking bored.

The song itself was nice. She just couldn’t perform live.

Sasha
Sasha
5 years ago

If I was a jury member for the contest, I would rank all the non-English language songs in my top ranks even if I like them less than English songs. I guess I’d be corrupt in that regard.

Darth Thulhu
Darth Thulhu
5 years ago

For the songs on this first half of the list: GREECE WUZ ROBBED

The live performance was, sadly, not staged as strongly as the music video of the studio version, but it still deserved to make the Final. Silly juries!

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  Darth Thulhu

It deserved to tank as it did. It was a very flat and forgettable song, and two-thirds of its televote points came from neighbors anyway. All the semi 1 qualifiers were deserving finalists.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Darth Thulhu

Saving Albania was probably the only thing the juries did right this year, but at least they did. No crime detected, sorry.

Darth Thulhu
Darth Thulhu
5 years ago

Speaking of the Hungarians not on the first part of this list, and the Israelis who probably don’t have enough Hebrew in their song to be on the second part of this list, you will probably enjoy listening to Viszlát Toy on the official AWS youtube channel. Netta’s singing on top of AWS’s music, it is delightful and funny and memetacular. I honestly would not mind it opening Eurovision 2019.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fVVPJcsT8M

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

I like “Qami” and “O Jardim”. I prefer the original version of Sevak’s song though. Sadly, both did terrible, but somehow I understand why.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

English is also a foreign language to me, so…

A Netherlandian
A Netherlandian
5 years ago

Then explain to me how on Earth Israel won at this particular point in time.

Adam
Adam
5 years ago

Although I agree that every ranking in the contest has in some way been politically influenced, you can not say that televoters and jurors make decisions entirely upon political beliefs, or else every country’s ranking would stay roughly the same year-on-year. Betting odds also change every year with no correlation to political affairs – bear in my mind that they are companies trying to earn money so there is no reason they would be try to be inaccurate. And also, wouldn’t the EXTREMELY CONTROVERSIAL promotion of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital have the reverse effect of allowing her to win, since… Read more »

Anonymous ESC Fan
Anonymous ESC Fan
5 years ago

Slovenia
Hungary
Serbia
France
Albania
Estonia
Italy…

ESCFan2009
ESCFan2009
5 years ago

I love to hear non-english songs at Eurovision! The only bad thing is that I cannot sing well along to them. I learn the lyrics of a song very fast by listening and I love it to sing and perform along with the artists. But with Albania or Spain 2018 (non-english songs) I cannot sing that well as with Finland and Norway (English songs). You understand my problem with foreign languages haha 😀 😀

Maldric
Maldric
5 years ago

Its eurovision song contest…not english-song contest or radio-friendly song contest or even mega-hits contest

Triad
Triad
5 years ago

Albania has always done well with Albanian versions, remember Rona with Suus and now Eugent with Mall.

Roelof Meesters
Roelof Meesters
5 years ago
Reply to  Triad

True, but 2013 was a disaster. I hope they keep going in Albanian

Ern
Ern
5 years ago

Must of been a weak year for non-English entries, because Albania 2013 was awful.

Albania 2012, however, was excellent.

KYLLITO
KYLLITO
5 years ago

One song that should have been in the native language instead of english was OUR CHOICE from Iceland. HEIM would have had a better chance at qualifying. It is still one of my favorites and people were way to harsh about the songs cheesy lyrics. Ari Olaffson can sing and he is very endearing when being interviewed.

Dimples
Dimples
5 years ago
Reply to  KYLLITO

What an amazing song

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  KYLLITO

It finished with 0 televote points… nothing was going to save it.

Ana
Ana
5 years ago

I don’t care about the Eurovision ‘fashion’ or tendencies, I will always appreciate singing in one’s own language. One of the reasons why I watch the contest is to get to know other cultures, and I’m happy if the songs stay in their first languages and are not changed into English (it’s an extra point from me ;)). The meaning should be given then by commentators (and that should be definitely corrected) plus significant perfomance if the artist needs it.

Safiya
Safiya
5 years ago

I don’t think it’s about the language. Do you think this song could do much better if they were in English? They just weren’t the best and not high-impact enough.

Kyna
Kyna
5 years ago

People are so used to hear songs in English so that they tend to overlook songs in foreign languages. Now it seems that the only way to catch attention/get message across is to either make the song to stand out somehow. Or unfortunately, change it to English, which saddens me. Look at this years top 10: only 2 managed to get in and that’s Italy and Estonia both in Italian, rest of them are in English and looking at it is so underwhelming, especially when there was a remarkable increase of non-English songs this time. It hurts to see non-English… Read more »

toyo34
toyo34
5 years ago

France also can be added to this list. But the thing i hate every year is that a lot of people from other countries ask France to absolutely send a song in french and not in english. So we send a song in french, people are happy and the only thing people do to thank us is place us very bad in televote. Seriously stop say you want french language song if after ask that, you place France 17th in televote. I see so many people say “french is so beautiful language” “Mercy is a fantastic french song” . I… Read more »

Marc
Marc
5 years ago
Reply to  toyo34

France was 11th with televote by average ranking!
It did quite well in many televotes 🙂
The problem this year was your performers not the language! People do love French.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  toyo34

Eurovision is much bigger than the English-speaking fandom. Keep that in mind.
But “Mercy” is indeed a great song. The staging was quite dull though.

James
James
5 years ago

Would “Toy” be considered a semi-bilingual song as words and sounds in Hebrew were apparently peppered into the song?

sevzch
sevzch
5 years ago
Reply to  James

Netta actually fought doron madali to add hebrew words for toy as “ani lo boba” and “stefa” werent planned for the final cut of toy… netta really wanted hebrew in toy… so she maneged to add a few words… excuse me for my english <3

beccaboo1212
5 years ago
Reply to  sevzch

Don’t worry, Sevzch. Just keep practicing. 🙂

Darth Thulhu
Darth Thulhu
5 years ago
Reply to  sevzch

Didn’t know that, and I’m glad Netta fought for the Hebrew inclusions. Toy would probably not have won without them, I’m confident. That “middle verse” with all the Hebrew bits and all the Jewish wedding customs is, by far, the best verse of the song. All of that distinctively makes Toy a song “that only could have been sent by Israel”, and puts a distinctly Jewish-girl-dissing-pushy-Jewish-jerk vibe onto the proceedings. By contrast, most of Israel’s recent songs are exactly as flat and bland as most recent songs from Sweden and Swedish-exports like Fuego: *any* country could have sung those songs,… Read more »

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago
Reply to  Darth Thulhu

I think “Fuego” had some traditional instrumental from Cyprus/Greece. Am I right?

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Where sis? The “Fuego” post-chorus drop is just some random Oriental-sounding electronic sound that’s very frequent in Scandinavian productions.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

I thought the instrumental (also in the beginning of the song), was from that region.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  Jo.

Lmao no it’s pure Scandipop.

Zzz
Zzz
5 years ago

Fighting!