The Eurovision song contest has been and gone for another year. Many of the songs are in English nowadays. I wonder, has there ever been an entry in Esperanto? It seems like a perfect match for Eurovision, 'bringing Europe together' etc. I can't imagine it seeming strange.

I'm as sure as I can be that Esperanto has never been used in the ESC, and for some years it would have been against the rules: a national language of the entrant country was specified. I think that each country is now free to choose the language of its entry, and many choose English as you say. That'll be for commercial reasons, no doubt.

From wiki:

"As of the 1999 Contest .. songs may be performed in any language .. In 2003, Belgium .. entered a song, Sanomi, in an artificial language created especially for the song. The same tactic was used in 2006 by the Dutch entry Treble which is partially sung in an artificial language and once again by Belgium with their 2008 entry O Julissi."

It appears from this that Esperanto could be used, if someone sufficiently talented, perhaps a group like Akordo or Kajto, or the singer JoMo, were to persuade a country to use their song!

Miland:It appears from this that Esperanto could be used, if someone sufficiently talented ... were to persuade a country to use their song!

Sufficiently untalented, surely?!

If I sung at the contest, then im am sure that Esperanto would be banned altogether =P

It appears from this that Esperanto could be used, if someone sufficiently talented, perhaps a group like Akordo or Kajto, or the singer JoMo, were to persuade a country to use their song!

I think even a non-Esperantist singer could manage one song in Esperanto. There was a small vogue for singing multiple versions of the same song in different languages a few years ago. Avril Lavigne and Wir Sind Helden did it with 'Girlfriend' and 'Von Hier An Blind', and if they can do it, others can! Poland is the obvious choice, but I think Britain should sing its song at the next ESC in Esperanto, partly for the reason I mentioned, but also partly because so many other countries go to the effort of singing in a foreign language. And getting the support of European esperantists can't hurt Britain's usually dismal chances, either. Anyway, the idea's out there now, that's about the most I can contribute!

3rdblade:

It appears from this that Esperanto could be used, if someone sufficiently talented, perhaps a group like Akordo or Kajto, or the singer JoMo, were to persuade a country to use their song!

I think even a non-Esperantist singer could manage one song in Esperanto. There was a small vogue for singing multiple versions of the same song in different languages a few years ago. Avril Lavigne and Wir Sind Helden did it with 'Girlfriend' and 'Von Hier An Blind', and if they can do it, others can! Poland is the obvious choice, but I think Britain should sing its song at the next ESC in Esperanto, partly for the reason I mentioned, but also partly because so many other countries go to the effort of singing in a foreign language. And getting the support of European esperantists can't hurt Britain's usually dismal chances, either. Anyway, the idea's out there now, that's about the most I can contribute!

An Britain foreign language contribution sounds good. What I have seen makes me thinking that there are some e-o friendly Britain broadcasting stations out which will support that. There are other e-o community internal possibilties to promote that, too.

An Britain foreign language contribution sounds good. What I have seen makes me thinking that there are some e-o friendly Britain broadcasting stations out which will support that. There are other e-o community internal possibilties to promote that, too.

I was actually thinking that as there were only about 3 songs this year that were not in English how funny and ironic it would be if the UK did sing in perhaps Welsh or Scots-Gaelic. Let's face it, coming last several times in the last decade means the UK cannot do much worse than it has been doing!

Aside; I thought "OPA!" sung in Greek by Giorgos Alkaios is a fantastic song and even though I don't speak a word of Greek, the sound of it is perfect for that song. If that had been sung in English it would have lost its impact.