Artists, publishers, songwriters and labels from across Europe are invited to apply to have songs translated into different European languages for global distribution.
EU-funded lyric translation project Belem (Boosting European Lyrics and Entrepreneurial Monetization) has announced its final open call is now live until February 23rd 2025, for artists, songwriters, labels and publishers to apply for a €3000 grant to have their works translated into different European languages, including English.
The organisation, which includes leading music industry players such as LyricFind, Deezer, Zebralution, Unison, Broma 16 and .MUSIC, is offering grants for 17 projects, where applicants can either have existing albums, EPs, or even full catalogues of music translated into as many languages as the applicant chooses, or they can record new translated versions of existing works in other languages. These translations will then be ready for global distribution via LyricFind, offering the opportunity to boost fan engagement and revenue in new markets around the world.
This comes as Belem launches its new AI-powered translation tool, Belem Lyric Studio, which is capable of translating lyrics into over 100 languages within a matter of minutes, and will be available for use for the open call, alongside Belem’s existing network of professional translators.
The tool, which was designed by Belem partner Fleepit, uses LyricFind’s LyricAssist and is optimised for lyric translation for meaning, using layers upon layers of AI to listen to a song, identify the mood of the music and lyrics based on its rhythm, melody, and key, and use the music to inform its translations, resulting in more nuanced lyric translations. These are already synchronised with the music and ready for integration into Digital Service Providers (DSPs), such as Deezer, who remains the only global streaming platform currently offering lyric translations to users in all markets.
The quality of Belem Lyric Studio’s translations is amongst the highest in the market, competing with machine translation giants such as Google Translate and DeepL; in fact, each Belem Lyric Studio translation generates a METEOR score, the metric for judging machine translation, of 0.9 or above, which is ranked as ‘Very Good’, where a score of 1 represents an accurate human translation. Belem Lyric Studio is also particularly adept at translating slavic languages, which are currently underserved by other machine translation services.
Successful applicants of the open call will be among the first to have their work translated by Belem Lyric Studio. In addition, winners will also have the opportunity to call upon Belem’s pool of human translators, who have translated works for previous open call applicants, including 2024 winners, Zhiva from Serbia, Misia Furtak from Poland, Fiachna O Braonain from Ireland, and Ruth Koleva from Bulgaria.
Commenting on her participation in the Belem open call programme, Koleva says: “I was thrilled with the translation. The translators captured the essence of the song beautifully, preserving both the meaning and the emotional depth I intended. It felt authentic and true to the original, yet enriched by the nuances of the new language.
Since joining BELEM, I’ve noticed increased interest from international audiences. I’ve received invitations for interviews and collaborations that might not have occurred otherwise. It broadened my reach and opened doors to new opportunities.”
For the final open call, applicants will be judged by a selection panel made up of industry experts from AMAEI, RUNDA, IMPALA, IMPF, and the Belem organisation itself, who will select winners based on diversity, relevance and quality. Each successful applicant will receive a lump sum award of €3000, with the remaining 40% of the project fee made up by applicant co-investment.
Robert Singerman, SVP at LyricFind and Belem co-founder, comments: “Music is, and always has been universal, but when it comes to lyrics, language has always been a significant barrier, especially for non-English speaking artists. Now, through the power of Belem’s translations, which leverage LyricFind’s Lyric Assist, Translations Distribution and can convey what a song is really saying, we are offering artists, publishers, labels, and songwriters alike the chance to overcome this barrier and share their music with new markets and fans around the world.
Through our final open call, we are excited to show the power of lyric translations, and we are looking forward to working with all BELEM EU grant winners, partners and Deezer, along with everyone who understands the value of song meanings globally.”
Alongside Fleepit, LyricFind, Deezer, .MUSIC, and Zebralution, BELEM includes 10 other EU independent music publishing, technology, distribution, independent label trade associations,, including AMAEI, RUNDA, Independent Digital, Broma 16, Unison Rights, Metatron Publishing, Mars Music, Bardis Music Co, Lusitanian Music Publishing and Nord University.
The BELEM Co-Creation Open Call is open from Monday, 13th January 2025. Applications will close on Sunday, 23rd February 2025. Artists, songwriters, publishers and labels can apply for the open call here: https://www.belem.music/open-calls