diff --git a/identify/identify.py b/identify/identify.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/identify/identify.py
+++ b/identify/identify.py
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ def parse_shebang(bytesio):
         return ()
     first_line = bytesio.readline()
     try:
-        first_line = first_line.decode('US-ASCII')
+        first_line = first_line.decode('UTF-8')
     except UnicodeDecodeError:
         return ()
Use UTF-8 to decode the shebang line