Liet International

Liet International ( fy, Liet Ynternasjonaal), formerly Liet-Lávlut, is a song contest for musicians who speak any of Europe's regional or minority languages that was held the first time in Friesland in 2002. The goal of the festival is to boost interest in Europe's minority languages, especially with young people.

Liet International began in 2002 as a spinoff of the Frisian-language song contest Liet (West Frisian for "song"), held annually in Leeuwarden/Ljouwert since 1991. The first three editions of Liet International likewise took place in Leeuwarden. Since 2006 it has been held in a different city each year. The 2006 and 2008 contests, held in the Swedish Sápmi, were titled Liet-Lávlut (''lávlut'' is Northern Sami for "sing").

Since 2008 Liet International has been organized under the patronage of the Council of Europe.

Contests were cancelled in 2007 and 2013 when the hosting organizations, in Narbonne and Corsica respectively, backed out at a late stage, and in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No Liet International was held in 2005, 2015, 2016, 2019 or 2021.

Qualification

The winners of certain song contests for particular languages or groups of languages automatically qualify as entrants for Liet International. These contests thus function as selection rounds for the international contest. They have included:

* (West Frisian)
* (Asturian)
* Sámi Grand Prix (Sámi)
* SUNS (minority languages of Italy and the Alpine region)
* (minority languages of the Nordic and Baltic regions, 2007)
* Nós Úr (Celtic languages and Scots, 2008-2009)
* Liet Corsica (Corsican, 2012)

Additional entrants are chosen from applying artists by a selection committee.

Liet Ynternasjonaal 2002

The first Liet International song contest was held on April 28, 2002 at the theatre in Leeuwarden/Ljouwert, Friesland, the Netherlands. The West Frisian-language Liet contest was held on the previous night, and in a pattern that would be repeated in future editions the winner of Liet went on to represent Friesland in the international contest. However in later years Liet International would be held some months after Liet.

Both the jury and public awards were won by the Catalan band Pomada for their song "En Pere Galleri".

Liet Ynternasjonaal 2003

The second Liet International contest was again held at the De Harmonie theatre in Leeuwarden, on November 23, 2003.

Transjoik, a Sámi group from Norway, won the jury award with their song "Mijjajaa". The public award was won by Welsh/Cornish singer Gwenno for her song in Cornish, "Vodya".

Liet Ynternasjonaal 2004

The third edition of the contest was held on the 22nd of October, 2004. The venue was once again the De Harmonie theatre in Leeuwarden. Sámi singer Niko Valkeapää won both the jury and the public award with his song "Rabas mielain". This was the second time in a row that the contest was won by the Sámi entry.

Liet-Lávlut 2006

Since the Sámi had won two out of the three competitions, the festival was held in Östersund, Sweden, which is the southern reaches of the area, Sápmi, where the Sámi live in the Nordic Countries. Sixty competitors, singing in 25 minority languages, took part in the preliminary elimination round. Eleven songs, representing 11 languages, were selected for the final competition.

Although the winner was selected by the festival's jury, the audience could vote for their favorite artist at the festival, on the Internet and by SMS message. The Sámi duo of Johan Kitti from Sweden and Ellen Sara Bæhr from Norway won the competition with "Luđiin muitalan", sung in Northern Sámi. The audience favorite was Liza Pannetier, with her song in Occitan, "Soleu Rouge".

Liet-Lávlut 2008

The competition took place on 18 October at Kulturens hus in Luleå/Luleju, Sweden. Corsican singer Jacques Culioli won both the jury's and public's awards.

Liet International 2009

In January the Board of the Liet Foundation decided to continue under the name Liet International.
The 6th competition was held on 31 October 2009, returning to the De Harmonie theater in Leeuwarden.

The Finnish Sámi rock band Somby won the competition with their song "Ii iđit vel", sung in Northern Sámi. The audience favorite was Dr. Drer en Cre Posse from Sardinia, with their song "Apu biu".

* Also known as "Ii iđida".

Liet International 2010

In 2010 Liet International was held in the Breton city of Lorient/An Oriant in France. The contest was won by the band ''Orka'' of the Faroe Islands with their song "Rúmdardrongurin". The public award went to the Friulian band R.esistence in Dub and their song "Fieste".

Liet International 2011

The eighth Liet International was held on November 19, 2011 at the Teatro Giovanni da Udine in Udine/Udin, the historical capital of the Italian region of Friûl.

The Frisian singer Janna Eijer (22) from Jobbegea won the jury prize with her song "Ien klap", while the band Coffeeshock Company from Austria won the public vote with "Gusla mi se je znicila", sung in Burgenland Croatian.

* * Misidentified as "Emeze" on the Liet International website etc. "Emeźe" is a different song by the same group.

Liet International 2012

The ninth edition of Liet International was held in Gijón/Xixón, Asturias, Spain, at the Teatru de la Llaboral, on December 1, 2012. Welsh-born Breton singer Lleuwen won the jury prize for her song "Ar Gouloù Bev", while the public prize went to Asturiana Mining Company with "Si nun conoces Vaḷḷouta".

Liet International 2014

The 2014 contest was held in Oldenburg, Germany. 19-year-old musician Martina Iori, from Val di Fassa in the north of Italy, won the jury award for her song "Via con mia mùsega", sung in Ladin.

In this year the audience award was replaced by a musicians' award voted on by the contestants themselves. This was won by Aila-Duo from Finland and their song in Aanaar Sámi "Naharij kandâ".

Liet International 2017

The 11th Liet International song contest was scheduled to be held in late 2016 in Kautokeino/Guovdageaidnu, Norway, the home of the Sámi Grand Prix. However, due to a lack of funds the contest was rescheduled to fall on April 13 2017, as part of the Sámi Easterfestival.

For a second time in the history of the contest, a local singer, Norwegian Sami-speaker Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, won the contest with her song "Luoddaearru" ("Crossroad") in addition to being awarded the Musicians' award.

Liet International 2018

The 12th Liet International song contest was held on May 23 2018 at Neushoorn Leeuwarden as part of LF2018 (Leeuwarden's stint as European Capital of Culture).

Liet International 2020

The 13th Liet International contest was due to be held on 3 - 4 April 2020 in Aabenraa, Denmark, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this, there was still a full list of acts released:

* * Although the Low German dialect is spoken throughout Northern Germany, the group hail specifically from Hamburg.
* ** Specifically the region of Southern Schleswig.

Liet International 2020+1

Though the 13th Liet International contest was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided on 4 October 2021 that a replacement show would be held, entitled Liet International 2020+1, to celebrate the acts due to compete in the 2020 contest. Ten competitors out of the 20 from the 2020 contest will participate in Liet International 2020+1. It is unknown whether the show will be competitive or non-competitive.

* * Although the Low German dialect is spoken throughout Northern Germany, the group hail specifically from Hamburg.

Liet International 2022

The 13th Liet International contest was held on 13 May 2022 at the Schweizerhalle in Tønder, Denmark. There was 13 competing entries, and was moderated by Stefanie Pia Wright and Niklas Freiberg Nissen. It featured the first competitive entries in South Jutlandic, Southern Schleswig Danish, and South Tyrolean German (all languages which would have either debuted in the canceled 2020 contest or were featured in the non-competitive 2020+1 edition), as well as the first entry in North Frisian since the inaugural contest in 2002. It was the first contest since 2008 to not feature an entry from Scotland, and the first competitive edition to not feature a submission from the United Kingdom.

Initially, the Russian band Jura were due to compete with the song "Takhetle konum" in the Tatar language, but they withdrew due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. In their place, Israeli band Sofi and the Baladis competed with the song "Rebutalla", marking both the first time Israel was represented by an entry, the first entry from a country in the Middle East, and the first entry in Hebrew; as well as the third entry from a non-European country (the first two being the entries representing Suriname). Early announcements also listed Brother Sea with the song "Trodhydhyek" as a participant, while the final listing contained Billy Fumey with "U Port Titi" instead.

The jury award was won by Doria, and the audience award was won by Emanuele Pintus.

Language history

All told, fifty-seven languages have been represented at the contest at least once (counting the canceled 2020 edition). West Frisian is the only language to have appeared at every contest, as well as one of only two to have been represented by two different entries at the same contest (the other being Galician, and both occurred at the 2018 contest). Scotland is the only region to be represented by two languages at the same contest, once again at the 2018 contest (Scottish Gaelic and Scots). The only non-European language to have appeared at the contest is Sranan Tongo. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom have participated the most, with regional entries in all 13 contests, while France and Spain have only missed one each. Languages representing Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Romania have each only appeared once. Russia is the country with the most regional languages featured at the contest, totaling eight. Although many languages featured at the contest are recognized national or regional languages within their countries, only three featured languages (Hebrew, Irish, and Luxembourgish) are considered their countries' official or co-official language.

References

External links

Official Site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liet-Lavlut
Language policy of the European Union
Recurring events established in 2002
2002 establishments in the Netherlands
Song contests