Yet again, the UK have performed disappointingly at the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing 19th overall, and coming in at the very bottom of the public vote after receiving zero points. It’s certainly become something of a stereotypical joke in this country, that we always do terrible at Eurovision, but it’s remarkable just how true that stereotype is. With the exception of Sam Ryder’s phenomenal result in 2022, we have consistently found ourselves in the bottom half of the scoreboard every single year, often very close to the bottom itself:

2012: 25/26
2013: 19/26
2014: 17/26
2015: 24/27
2016: 24/26
2017: 15/26
2018: 24/26
2019: 16/26
2021: 26/26
2022: 2/25
2023: 25/26
2024: 18/25
2025: 19/26

It is clear that it is time to do something different. One approach that could well have a noticeable impact, would be to enter a song in the Welsh language.

Since its first entry in the 1957 edition of the contest, every single UK Eurovision entry has been sung in English. In fact, since the rule change of 1999 allowing countries to sing in whichever language they so choose, a significant proportion of countries have elected to sing in English too, believing it to improve their chances of success. And this prediction has been largely correct: from 1999 to 2015, only one winning entry was not in English – Serbia’s ‘Молитва’ from 2007.

But this is beginning to change. Multiple countries have won in recent years with non-English songs, including Portugal in 2017 with ‘Amar pelos dois’; Italy in 2021 with ‘Zitti e buoni’; and Ukraine in 2022 with ‘Стефанія’. In fact, even minority languages such as Welsh have experienced success: Ukraine’s winning entry in 2016, ‘1944’, was sung partially in Crimean Tatar; whilst more recent entries have included Norway’s ‘Spirit in the Sky’ from 2019, sung partially in Northern Sámi; and France’s ‘Fulenn’ from 2022, sung entirely in Breton.

There is little doubt that the UK as a nation is not especially popular in Europe right now. Our 2016 decision to leave the European Union – amongst other factors such as the embarrassingly accurate stereotypes of British tourists – have contributed to a reputation of arrogance for our country, of thinking that we are somehow superior to the rest of Europe.

By making the somewhat modest decision to perform in a language other than English, we would be helping to show that this is not who we are, that we do not think ourselves to be superior, and that we are not above the use of a language other than English. And we would be doing so in a way that still reflects and recognises our national identity: there are over half a million proud Welsh speakers across the UK, and growing.

It is time to try something different. Let’s work on improving our international reputation, and enter a song in Welsh that actually stands a chance of winning Eurovision 2026.

Diolch yn fawr.