diff --git a/spotdl/download/downloader.py b/spotdl/download/downloader.py
index 9a8488cd9..7aff91375 100644
--- a/spotdl/download/downloader.py
+++ b/spotdl/download/downloader.py
@@ -545,7 +545,15 @@ def search_and_download(self, song: Song) -> Tuple[Song, Optional[Path]]:
             )
 
             return song, output_file
-        except Exception as exception:
+        except (Exception, UnicodeEncodeError) as exception:
+            if isinstance(exception, UnicodeEncodeError):
+                exception_cause = exception
+                exception = DownloaderError(
+                    "You may need to add PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 to your environment"
+                )
+
+                exception.__cause__ = exception_cause
+
             display_progress_tracker.notify_error(
                 traceback.format_exc(), exception, True
             )
diff --git a/spotdl/download/progress_handler.py b/spotdl/download/progress_handler.py
index 0cdd71a5a..570bbf7be 100644
--- a/spotdl/download/progress_handler.py
+++ b/spotdl/download/progress_handler.py
@@ -388,6 +388,14 @@ def __init__(self, parent, song: Song) -> None:
         self.parent: "ProgressHandler" = parent
         self.song = song
 
+        # Clean up the song name
+        # from weird unicode characters
+        self.song_name = "".join(
+            char
+            for char in self.song.name
+            if char not in [chr(i) for i in range(769, 880)]
+        )
+
         self.progress: int = 0
         self.old_progress: int = 0
         self.status = ""