diff --git a/lib/naughty.lua.in b/lib/naughty.lua.in
index 722b838a6..e00c047b1 100644
--- a/lib/naughty.lua.in
+++ b/lib/naughty.lua.in
@@ -356,16 +356,22 @@ function notify(args)
     marginbox:set_widget(textbox)
     textbox.valign = "middle"
 
-    local function setText(pattern, replacements)
+    local function setMarkup(pattern, replacements)
         textbox:set_markup(string.format('<span font_desc="%s"><b>%s</b>%s</span>', font, title, text:gsub(pattern, replacements)))
     end
+    local function setText()
+        textbox:set_text(string.format('%s %s', title, text)
+    end
 
     -- First try to set the text while only interpreting <br>.
     -- (Setting a textbox' .text to an invalid pattern throws a lua error)
-    if not pcall(setText, "<br.->", "\n") then
+    if not pcall(setMarkup, "<br.->", "\n") then
         -- That failed, escape everything which might cause an error from pango
-        if not pcall(setText, "[<>&]", { ['<'] = "&lt;", ['>'] = "&gt;", ['&'] = "&amp;" }) then
-            textbox:set_markup("<i>&lt;Invalid markup, cannot display message&gt;</i>")
+        if not pcall(setMarkup, "[<>&]", { ['<'] = "&lt;", ['>'] = "&gt;", ['&'] = "&amp;" }) then
+            -- Ok, just ignore all pango markup. If this fails, we got some invalid utf8
+            if not pcall(setText) then
+                textbox:set_markup("<i>&lt;Invalid markup or UTF8, cannot display message&gt;</i>")
+            end
         end
     end