Even though English has been the dominant language in Eurovision since the language rule was revoked in 1999, there are always some countries that choose to sing in their own language. And this year’s contest is no exception as we have 11 countries that are representing their own mother tongues on stage.
In this poll we are including bilingual songs where the majority of the song is in a non-English language. However we are excluding songs with just a few sentences in other languages, like Denmark’s “Love Is Forever” and Croatia’s “The Dream”, as the vast majority of the song is in English.
So, as you brush up on your Albanian, French, Georgian, Icelandic, Hungarian and more, we want you to name your favourite non-English song of 2019. You can listen to all of the songs below and then vote for your favourite. You can vote for as many songs as you like but remember that you can only vote once. Be sure to tick the box next to each act you want to support before pressing submit.
Non-English songs of Eurovision 2019
Albania: “Ktheju tokës” — Jonida Maliqi
This will be the 6th time that Albania sings entirely in Albanian. The title “Ktheju tokës” translates as “Restore the Earth”. The lyrics tackle the subject of Albanian emigration and the song may resonate with immigrants around the world.
France: “Roi” — Bilal Hassani
France still hasn’t had a song sung entirely in English, but this will be the 7th time their entry’s lyrics are a mix of French and English. The title “Roi” translates as “King”.
Georgia: “Sul tsin iare” — Oto Nemsadze
This is only the second time Georgia has sent a song entirely in Georgian, the first being last year. The title “Sul tsin iare” translates as “Keep on Going”. Will “Sul tsin iare” become the first entirely Georgian song to make the Eurovision grand final?
Hungary: “Az én ápam” — Joci Pápai
This is the third year in a row the song from Hungary will be sung in Hungarian, and the fifth time since 2005. The title “Az én ápam” translates to “My Father”. Can Joci achieve another Top 10 result?
Iceland: “Hatrið mun sigra” — Hatari
This is only the second time since 1999 that Iceland is sending a song in Icelandic. The title “Hatrið mun sigra” translates as “Hate Will Prevail”. Will hate take the trophy in Tel Aviv?
Italy: “Soldi” — Mahmood
Italy has always sung in Italian, with a few songs including parts in English and one in Neopolitan. However, this will be the first time the Italian song includes parts in Arabic. The title “Soldi” translates as “Money”. Is your money on Italy?
Poland: “Fire of Love (Pali Się)” — Tulia
Poland has only had three entries since 1999 that were sung entirely in Polish. This year is their 8th entry with parts of the lyrics in Polish. The Polish part of the title “Fire of Love (Pali Się)” translates as “It’s on Fire”. Are you feeling the fuego?
Portugal: “Telemóveis” — Conan Osíris
Portugal has always sung entirely in Portuguese, with three exceptions where English formed a minor part of the lyrics. The title “Telemóveis” translates as “Mobile Phones”. Are you picking up your phone to vote for Portugal?
Serbia: “Kruna” — Nevena Božović
This is the 9th time Serbia has sent a song in Serbian, but the first time they are mixing Serbian and English in one song. The title “Kruna” translates as “Crown”. Is Nevena your queen?
Slovenia: “Sebi” — Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl
This is the second year in a row Slovenia is sending a song in Slovenian, and the 8th time since 1999. The title “Sebi” can be translated as “Same”.
Spain: “La Venda” — Miki
Spain has only had one song entirely in English, but occasionally mix Spanish and English. This year the Spaniards are sticking to their mother tongue. The title “La venda” translates as “The Blindfold”.
Serbia so beautiful, Poland so original, Iceland so unique, Italy so cool
Must confess Conan is so unique! Love portugal and italian entry but Cona has something’s special. Love this showman
Agree with you. First listen I’ll get hypnotised and then I realized the uniqueness of this song and the amazing performance of Conan.
Portugal to win again
Conan will do great!
And now there are more than 40 portuguese artists hasking for Conan Osiris to give up from from Eurovision 2019 as a way to be against Israel… but Conan don’t even care!
Last night he gives a huge concert and he was a King! Here is an article with videos from the show:
https://observador.pt/2019/03/30/conan-osiris-levou-telemoveis-ao-musicbox-e-ainda-pos-fas-em-cima-do-palco/
Italy, Iceland, Slovenia and Albania, i don’t one which one is better, i love them all.
my top three:
1. Italy
2 & 3 -> Poland & Slovenia or Slovenia & Poland
Here’s the audio for the new version of “Kruna”. Nevena Bozovic appears at Eurovision in Concert on April 6th and gets married on the 20th of that month. Will she have time to film a music video for the revamped “Kruna” in between those events? (I’m guessing April 8th to 13th)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArMg80OsZ2M
Conan Osiris! Love him! And love Portugal too! Wouldn’t mind to go again there next year!!!!
My top
1 Poland
2 Iceland
3 Italy
4 Slovenia
5 Portugal and Albania
Just to clarify, ‘Sebi’ roughly translates to yourself.
Conan Osiris just arrived to Israel!
https://twitter.com/_etranid/status/1110559779381043201
Today we got a glimpse of Portugal’s postcard with Conan Osíris, and we can’t wait to see the finished product!
https://twitter.com/kaneurovision/status/1110579185091862531
Can’y wait to see maestro Conan run the world!
Portugal to win again without any doubt
Go Conan! Go Portugal!
Wiwibloggs, where is C R O A T I A ?
Denmark and Croatia are not counted because both those songs are still majority in english
also, Croatian fan’s behavior in previous polls show that Croatia has lost its poll privileges
Conan, the absolute king – no one gets close to him and his amazing performance;
Mahmood’s song is OK but a bit flat, cannot listen to it anymore;
Slovenian couple has a sexy song but needs stronger staging so it can stand out;
Iceland, I do like, as I was listening to industrial music back in the days – but lacks originality and vision. Sado-maso asthetics as power critique, really? because it was never done before… (yawn).
(all the rest mediocre – to skip altogether)
ps.: you can downvote as much as you like. Love and good music will always prevail 🙂
You don’t have a monopoly on good taste.
Good music is not a relative thing.
Portugal
Non of this song should be in ESC . They are awful al of them.
Do you even like something this year? xD
Sorry but I have to say it:WHAT A MORON, TASTELESS, MAINSTREAM JERK you are…. Wtf…. Really…. Goshhhh
One of the few polls where it was difficult to choose as I like so many of the songs. They are far more imaginative than many of their English language counterparts. For me its Italy, Iceland, Slovenia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, I like so many. I’ll be happy if the winner is amongst them.
Hungary. It’s very underrated. It should be far above Slovenia and Portugal.
My final ranking before rehearsals: 1. Italy ?? 2. The Netherlands ?? 3. Sweden ?? 4. Switzerland ?? 5. Norway ?? 6. Cyprus ?? 7. Malta ?? 8. Greece ?? 9. Portugal ?? 10. Spain ?? 11. Estonia ?? 12. Belgium ?? 13. France ?? 14. Czech Republic ?? 15. Romania ?? 16. North Macedonia ?? 17. Armenia ?? 18. Denmark ?? 19. Azerbaijan ?? 20. Israel ?? 21. Russia ?? 22. Australia ?? 23. United Kingdom ?? 24. Montenegro ?? 25. Ireland ?? 26. Iceland ?? 27. Hungary ?? 28. Belarus ?? 29. Croatia ?? 30. Moldova ?? 31.… Read more »
Portugal, Italy, Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, Poland… this year the non-English songs are fire
I haven’t really updated my rankings yet, but as it stands:
#1 Iceland
#2 Italy
#5 Poland
#6 Slovenia
#7 Spain
#15 Hungary
#18 Portugal
#27 France
#28 Serbia
#34 Albania
#38 Georgia
So, overall these seem to be doing a lot better than the English songs. There might be a reason for that.
Slovenia for the win
Italy
My choices were Iceland, Slovenia, Portugal and Italy…all of them are on my Top 5 along with Netherlands!
Albania, Portugal, Iceland and Slovenia are my favorites.
Chose Iceland, Portugal, and Poland since they are my top 3 this year
imo, they tried the hardest to be unique
Albania.
italy, poland n slovenia
Italy and Spain.
Iceland, Slovenia, Portugal and Albania. They are also in my top 5, together with the Netherlands. It seems I have a soft spot for non-English songs 😀
lol, almost the same, but i love Romania even more!
Waladi waladi habibi ta’aleena.
In my top10 i have: Albania, Iceland, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
I also like France and Slovenia
This is a very strong poll!
I LOVE bilingual entries, so I voted for Bilal. And before you are complaining: I also loved AMIR and ALMA. The French-English-mix is always fantastic: elegant and classy 😀
Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Serbia are my favourites.
Italy, Spain, Albania, Hungary, Portugal and Slovenia are in my top 10 . I normally appreciate cultural diversity over generic songs and I vote accordingly. So good luck to all of you!
Croatia’s song has some parts in croatian. Why Croatia is not in the pool?
I was wondering where Croatia is as well since they included Poland when they have 2 languages too
Then Denmark should be in there too.
agree
My top 3 are Iceland, Poland and Hungary.
Terrible songs.
France behind Poland and Serbia really ? This poll is rigged
He needs to learn how to sing
Before saying stupidities have you checked his last performances ? No because you are just here to be hateful it seems…..proved by your poor comment. Then check the facts before talking……classic free hater. You need to learn how to be clever maybe…..
No need to see his last performances. He is bad singer and only won because of his teen fandom… Will do very bad.
Hope all this hatred can at least make you feel better. Learning to respect artists whoever they are would be a good idea.
Saying someone is a bad singer doesn’t mean disrespecting them, it means they are a bad singer, that’s all. And elsa is right; his breathing technique is terrible and he sounds like he’s going to pass out any moment because he doesn’t have enough strength to finish the song
My ranking of all 11 songs:
1. Poland
2. Iceland
3. Italy
4. Slovenia
5. Albania
6. Hungary
7. Portugal
8. France
9. Spain
10. Georgia
11. Serbia
I like the first 9, and I actually think Georgia is ok. Serbia is not for me, sorry.
I voted all except Poland and Serbia
No doubt for me on this one…
Hate will prevail!
Italy, Iceland, Slovenia, Portugal.
Spain and my country Italy
Italy, Slovenia and Portugal – they are also all in my Top 5. Poland and Spain are in my Top 10. But all the other non-English songs are also really good this year, none of them is at the bottom. Yay for languages and diversity!
Italy
Portugal
Iceland
Basically thats my top3 of all songs!
Poland, Spain, and Italy for me. Do the three lines in Turkish let San Marino count?
?? Turkish is not San Marino’s mother tongue. It’s Serhat’s.
“we have 11 countries that are representing their own mother tongues on stage.”
Actually there are 15, if you count UK, Ireland, Malta and Australia…
16 including Croatia. The majority of the song is in English, but one third is in Croatian, which is still a representation.
Kewkba was robbed in 2017 🙁
Italy, Slovenia and Iceland with miles of distance from the rest.
U must be jokin’
I-C-E-L-A-N-D. Then Italy.
My top 4 + my own country
Slovenia, Iceland, Portugal, Poland and Italy..
More songs in mother tongue, less English!