diff --git a/tools/gst-play.c b/tools/gst-play.c
index ca3a0c8b00..358243937a 100644
--- a/tools/gst-play.c
+++ b/tools/gst-play.c
@@ -23,6 +23,8 @@
 #include "config.h"
 #endif
 
+#include <locale.h>
+
 #include <gst/gst.h>
 #include <gst/gst-i18n-app.h>
 #include <gst/pbutils/pbutils.h>
@@ -643,6 +645,8 @@ main (int argc, char **argv)
     {NULL}
   };
 
+  setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
+
 #ifdef ENABLE_NLS
   bindtextdomain (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
   bind_textdomain_codeset (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, "UTF-8");