Bringing back the language rule!

[MyHeartIsYours]

Well that's right but I meant that actually ESC was made to bring countries together after WW2 and showing each other the culture of each country. And ok I don't mean that they should be forced but in the recent years almost all the countries pick songs in English language and rarely in their native and the whole points is quite missing

Then how do you propose it be solved?

The solution in my eyes is for people who care about native languages to enter good enough songs to be selected to represent their countries.

 

[greece]

National finals could have more native language songs maybe?

Uhh I don't know I think the language rule would be fine, I never thought that they would actually be forced..

 

[tuorem]

National finals could have more native language songs maybe?

Uhh I don't know I think the language rule would be fine, I never thought that they would actually be forced..

I agree. Don't most of the artists sing in their language for the local market? Or maybe I live in a one-of-a-kind country

 

[greece]

I agree. Don't most of the artists sing in their language for the local market? Or maybe I live in a one-of-a-kind country

I don't know about the others but in Greece rarely Greek singers sing in English

And when they do is usually crap...

 

[Leydan]

I agree. Don't most of the artists sing in their language for the local market? Or maybe I live in a one-of-a-kind country

No you're not alone! They do in the UK as well!

 

[tuorem]

No you're not alone! They do in the UK as well!

See? Even in the UK!

 

[popavapeur]

I don't think it's a good idea to bring back the language thing. Some languages are pretty harsh to hear and enjoy (and it depends of your mother tongue) and pretty difficult to put some lyrics on it (Finnish is a good example). Even if i'd like to hear more languages in the contest i like the way it is for now.

I'm just disappointed to see that a lot of countries don't even try to make a song in their national language. A song in both languages or two versions is a good idea, at least we can check if the english version is really better than the "original" one. And i think that's just laziness : when you take a look at asian music, they have 90% of the song in national language and some words/ refrain in English and it just works. Korea and Japan are the second biggest music market behind USA.

 

[LoveHate]

Almost another year has passed. Since my opinion has not changed one bit I'll just quote my old post.

I wouldn't want the old rule back. A lot of European pop/rock music, even for domestic markets in countries where English is not an official language, is in English. I don't like the idea of only allowing a few countries to ever sing in English. The real problem is that some countries ALWAYS send songs in English (e.g. Sweden, Denmark, Azerbaijan...) and we never get to hear their national languages. Well, Swedish once since 1998 thanks to Finland. These countries should be forced to sing in other languages at least once in a while, for example a minimum of once per four years. A lot of countries already meet that requirement, so it would not be a very dramatic change.

 

[anto475]

I think it's a good idea to bring it back, or even insist that half of all entries in an NF must be in a national language. Both Israel and Serbia are going full-EN this year, that's a big indicator of how anglicised the contest is becoming

 

[Sim]

I think it's a good idea to bring it back, or even insist that half of all entries in an NF must be in a national language. Both Israel and Serbia are going full-EN this year, that's a big indicator of how anglicised the contest is becoming

I think it's difficult to say to a country you need to have some much native-language songs in your NF.
If they afterwards change it to english, nothing will change

 

[anto475]

I think it's difficult to say to a country you need to have some much native-language songs in your NF.
If they afterwards change it to english, nothing will change

yeah i kinda thought of that while i was typing that out, but i can't think of anything else other than the pre-1999 language rule. maybe something like in the JESC, idk.

 

[Sim]

yeah i kinda thought of that while i was typing that out, but i can't think of anything else other than the pre-1999 language rule. maybe something like in the JESC, idk.

it's certainly not a bad idea, but when was the last time a non english song won? in 2007
JESC is different.

 

[Quent91]

More than ever.

PLEASE.

 

[Alaska49]

on the one hand: having less english is way more important than a possible increase in block voting and it's not like people would magically start to love the bullshit uk and ireland send anyway
on the other hand: language rule is too restrictive. what about loin d'ici?

solution #1: instead of a rigid language rule, do it like junior eurovision, but only for the use of english: if english isn't an official language of the country then the country can't send an entry with more than a few lines (25% of the lyrics maybe?) of english lyrics, and all other languages are valid for all countries. it sounds arbitrary but english is really a worldwide language more than it is uk/ireland/malta's official language so i think it's valid.

 

[Brandt]

I am all the way against to interfere or step in the artist's way to show or make their art. Language is one of them. No one in this world should have a word to say how artist will make their art imo.

Music is not about languages, it is about feeling it.

 

[GianlucaTomoe]

The only way to go is having NFs in every country where there are both songs in English and songs in national language, so that the public can choose its favourite song regardless of the language.

 

[Alaska49]

I am all the way against to interfere or step in the artist's way to show or make their art. Language is one of them. No one in this world should have a word to say how artist will make their art imo.

Music is not about languages, it is about feeling it.

it's not that this isn't a great point because it is, but like... the sheer amount of entries written in native languages winning NFs and then being translated in english for eurovision kind of undermines it, doesn't it? realistically the language rule is never coming back in any capacity, so at the very least this should stop happening: if people selected it in a language, that's how it should be performed in eurovision.

 

[AdelAdel]

I never liked that the language rule was relaxed in 1999 in the first place. To me, ESC has recently become one boring festival. Not only the vast majority of the songs are in English, but most of them are also in the same style. Look at 2017, only 7 entries out of 42 were in other languages than English and only 3 of those 7 were fully in this other language! Portugal winning is a great surprise, considering it was one of those 3 countries. I thought that this might make broadcasters think twice about sending another song in English about nothing. And yes, there will be more songs than in national languages than before. Still, it's not enough. My favorite years in ESC were between 1977 and 1998 mostly because of the language rule. Songs sounded different from each other. And there are advantages of not knowing a language. For example, if a song is about silly cliche stuff and it's in a language you don't understand, then you might like the song if it has good music and you happen to like how a language sounds in general. If it was in English (or other language you understand), you might dislike it simply because it's about silly cliche stuff. Anyway, there are some countries that haven't sung even once in their national language since the language rule was lifted - Sweden, Denmark, Azerbaijan and there are countries which had only 1 entry in their language - Norway, Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus. As a side note, Belgium never sung in Dutch and Switzerland never sung in German since the rule was lifted. As a final touch, I think that the UK should send a song in Scottish sometime in the future...

 

[Citelis]

Unpopular opinion but i think is better without language rule! For me is more freedom to the contest without this rule!

 

[Realest]

I hope and think it will never come back. Countries like UK, Malta, Ireland, Italy, France, Spain, Romania with easier languages had unfair advantages over Finland and Iceland for example.