In Finland, there is a long tradition about using subtitles for the songs in the ESC (Eurovision Song Contest). It is commonly used for example for translating dialog lines of foreign films and TV serials into Finnish or Swedish.

Subtitles help many people. Those who do not speak foreign languages get a chance to understand them. Also many hearing-impaired people benefit of subtitles, if they do not manage to hear the sound properly. Nowadays there has also been diagnosed different cases of learning difficulties, who get a big help through subtitles.

Many people want to understand the message of the songs in ESC. Many artists perform their song in English because of that, as it is understood more widely than other languages. The consequence is however that the choice of languages in ESC has faded away, many European languages have not been heard there for years, and more and more artists and record companies think that their song needs English to get success. But we TV viewers would like to hear songs in many languages, and subtitles could help in this situation.