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Drukkje min broderѕ blod! Why the best Eurovision songs are no longer in English

While Europe’s lingua franca remains dominant, there has been a definite shift since a Portuguese song triumphed in 2017

This year, however, there’s a fair chance the winner will estar comiendo el mundo ( be eating the world), ridere in queste notti bruciate(laugh in these burnt nights), or even drukkje min broderѕ blod(drink my brother’s blood). Photograph: Gleb Garanich/ReutersThen, in 2017, something unexpected happened: Portugal’s Salvador Sobral won the grand final with Amar Pelos Dois, a song sung not in one of Europe’s most common languages, but in a tongue with only about 10 million native speakers on the continent. The entries with the biggest pre-competition buzz – Angelina Mango’s taut piece of steelpan pop La Noia, Marina Satti’s Rosalia-esque Zari and Joost Klein’s gabber-infused Europapa – are sung in Italian, Greek and Dutch, with no more than a few English phrases sprinkled over the top.

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