diff --git a/libs/ardour/globals.cc b/libs/ardour/globals.cc
index 8bee4ec902..39bcd1b79e 100644
--- a/libs/ardour/globals.cc
+++ b/libs/ardour/globals.cc
@@ -241,6 +241,7 @@ ARDOUR::init (bool use_windows_vst, bool try_optimization, const char* localedir
 
 #ifdef ENABLE_NLS
 	(void) bindtextdomain(PACKAGE, localedir);
+	(void) bind_textdomain_codeset (PACKAGE, "UTF-8");
 #endif
 
 	SessionEvent::init_event_pool ();
diff --git a/libs/gtkmm2ext/utils.cc b/libs/gtkmm2ext/utils.cc
index 4c85f1928d..d3a593a68f 100644
--- a/libs/gtkmm2ext/utils.cc
+++ b/libs/gtkmm2ext/utils.cc
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ Gtkmm2ext::init (const char* localedir)
 {
 #ifdef ENABLE_NLS
 	(void) bindtextdomain(PACKAGE, localedir);
+	(void) bind_textdomain_codeset (PACKAGE, "UTF-8");
 #endif
 }