diff --git a/tasks/main.yml b/tasks/main.yml
index 34d17ac..ecb88a5 100644
--- a/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/tasks/main.yml
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@
   mysql_db:
     login_unix_socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
     name: "{{ item.key }}"
-    collation: "{{ item.value.collation | default('utf8_general_ci') }}"
-    encoding: "{{ item.value.encoding | default('utf8') }}"
+    collation: "{{ item.value.collation | default('utf8mb4_unicode_ci') }}"
+    encoding: "{{ item.value.encoding | default('utf8mb4') }}"
   with_dict: "{{ mariadb.dbs }}"
 
 - name: create mariadb users