The Language Rule

From 1956 to 1965, there were no rules in place to dictate which language a country may perform in, however all entries up to 1964 were performed in one of their countries’ national languages. In 1965 Sweden broke with this tradition by being performed in English; a new language rule was subsequently introduced for the 1966 contest for all competing countries, preventing entries from being performed in any language other than one of the relevant country’s officially recognised national languages. The language rule was first abolished in 1973, allowing all participating countries to sing in the language of their choice; the rule was reintroduced ahead of the 1977 contest, however as the process for choosing the entries for Belgium and Germany had already begun before the rule change was announced, they were permitted to perform in English for that year’s edition. The language rule was abolished once again in 1999, resulting in 14 of that year’s 23 competing entries featuring English lyrics. (Source: Wikipedia)