Slovenia Introduces Language Rule for EMA 2018

Many fans long for the days of the language rule, in which a country was only allowed to send a song to the Eurovision Song Contest that is sung in their national language. Slovenia have answered these fans’ prayers….kind of!
The Slovenian broadcaster, RTVSLO, has announced that all participants in the Slovenian national selection, EMA 2018, will sing in Slovenian or in a language of “an indigenous ethnic community of Slovenia”.

So which languages have RTVSLO permitted?

This means that, along with Slovenian, participants can perform only in the following languages:

• Croatian
• German
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Romani
• Serbian

RTVSLO are yet to rule out that the winner of EMA 2018 could go on to perform in English at Eurovision.

Slovenian Language in Eurovision

Since 1999, when the EBU abolished the language rule, only six of Slovenia’s entry have been completely in Slovenian. However, only two of these entries qualified for the final, in 2002 and 2007. On the other hand, Slovenia have sent 11 entries using the English language since 1999. Of these 11 entries, five qualified. This suggests that there really is no advantage for Slovenia to perform in a particular language!
Last year, the record for the number of completely English-language songs was broken. A total of 35 of the songs were completely in English, whereas only four songs were completely in another language. The last two winners of the Eurovision Song Contest have included non-English lyrics. Read more about languages in Eurovision, and if non-English songs are making a powerful comeback here!
RTVSLO have not yet confirmed that they will participate in next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. However, EMA is usually used to select their entry, so it seems that participation from Slovenia is likely, despite not qualifying for the Eurovision final in the last two years!
What do you think of this language rule? Are you happy to see Slovenia implementing it in their national selection? Do you prefer songs in a language other than English? Tell us in the comments!