Austria’s entry Kaleen impressed with her dance performance at the Song Contest in Malmö. The backing track provides plenty of supporting vocals. This is according to the rules. Good for all acrobats among the artists. And kind of a shame.
Until 2021 it was still like this: all the voices that you heard in a contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest were sung live. Main voice and all choir voices. The latter were sometimes placed on the stage, sometimes hidden in a small vocal box away from the main stage for staging reasons. But: The singing was live. Everything. Always.
It is probably the least important side effect of the corona pandemic that this is no longer the case. Since 2021, the backing vocals have been allowed to be recorded on the instrumental track (previously one would have said “tape”). So don’t misunderstand: the relevant main voice, described as “characteristic” in the rules, must still be sung into the microphone by the artist himself. But the choir parts may be pre-produced and recorded. And that makes the regulations a bit unclear. For example, when singers “break out” of the main voice in the last chorus to sing so-called “adlibs,” i.e. seemingly improvised variations of the chorus melody. And in the background the main voice still plays along obediently in the choir, even though the artist no longer sings it. (It’s the same with Kaleen in the last chorus, around 2 minutes and 50 seconds in the following video: “Can’t Be Saved”)
What is much more relevant, however, is how the choir tracks on the backing track are used to “help” the singers. The main voice is doubled, tripped and multiplied, so that the singers only have to breathe in barely audibly during the worst hair-swinging choreographies and lifting figures, so that the understandably breathy singing cannot be heard clearly.
The vocals from the music recording also cover up other vocal deficiencies – and that’s a bit of a shame. Because it is precisely the live character of the song contest that is special about it. For the performance elements, this of course has the advantage that the money can be spent on dancers rather than background singers – or the search for those who can do both perfectly is no longer necessary. Nothing has changed about the six-person limit on stage. As a result, there is much more dancing and more intense dancing than in recent years, as the stage staff can also be expected to move more.
It can still go wrong
However, many choir soundtracks that double the main voice are only of limited help for numbers that are difficult to sing. Because if you sing incorrectly and loudly with the correct, pre-recorded background vocals, you don’t necessarily make the listening experience more pleasant for TV viewers. We learned this once again in Pia Maria’s fight against “Halo” in 2022. Anyone who consistently sings just too low in a louder register (more powerful tones) will rub against the correctly intonated choir voices. That is also unpleasant. Here you can hear it right at the beginning:
Last year Austria learned from this, the song “Who The Hell Is Edgar” was better prepared for Teya and Salena. In the chorus with the many “Poe Poe Poes” it was enough to hold back a little and use your own voice economically. The two singers were given enough freedom (without doubling) in the final parts “Oh Mio Padre”, where they both switch to more powerful sounds, while the “Poe Poe Poe” parts continue to be pre-recorded (in the video from 2:17 minutes). By the way, all three mentioned are really excellent singers.
And 2024? Kaleen’s track (like all dance-heavy, uptempo songs) is full of choral voices. A decision that is in the interest of performance. Kaleen put on an impressive display and body control in Thursday’s semi-final, giving the not particularly delicate Ninetys track “We Will Rave” a top television moment. That’s exactly what it was designed for. Plan worked. A few fewer cuts in the TV broadcast would perhaps show off the choreography even better.
How difficult things are for the singer when the sound technology is not mixed so well was seen at the fan events in Madrid, where Kaleen’s singing part still had clear potential for optimization. But apparently they found a better coordination both vocally and sound-wise in Malmö.
The desire for more real music making remains. The main vocal can also be doubled live by a background singer. That wouldn’t be a reinvention, it’s often done that way at live concerts. It doesn’t have to be a return to the live orchestra. But at least the singing should be completely live again.
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