diff --git a/internetarchive/cli/ia_metadata.py b/internetarchive/cli/ia_metadata.py
index 13caf2a0..79fd8e86 100644
--- a/internetarchive/cli/ia_metadata.py
+++ b/internetarchive/cli/ia_metadata.py
@@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ def main(argv: dict, session: session.ArchiveSession) -> None:
     if args['--spreadsheet']:
         if not args['--priority']:
             args['--priority'] = -5
-        with open(args['--spreadsheet'], newline='', encoding='utf-8') as csvfp:
+        with open(args['--spreadsheet'], newline='', encoding='utf-8-sig') as csvfp:
             spreadsheet = csv.DictReader(csvfp)
             responses = []
             for row in spreadsheet: