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EU-Funded BELEM Project Awards €3,000 Grants to 14 Artists for Multilingual Lyric Translation to Boost Global Reach

From Irish comedy duos to Balkan composers, BELEM celebrates Europe’s musical diversity with winners spanning 13 countries and translations into 18 different languages. 

 

July 2025: After receiving more than 1000 applications, EU-funded lyric translation project BELEM (Boosting European Lyrics and their Entrepreneurial Monetization) has announced the 14 winners of their final open call. The initiative invited artists, songwriters, labels and publishers to apply for €3,000 grants to have selected songs translated into other European languages for global distribution.

 

The BELEM open call, which was launched in collaboration with leading music industry players including LyricFind, Deezer, Zebralution, Unison, Broma 16 and .MUSIC, gives European artists an opportunity to break down language barriers and boost fan engagement and revenue in new markets by providing synchronised lyric translations which are then distributed globally via LyricFind. 

 

This comes at a timely moment for the selected winners of the programme, following Apple Music’s announcement in June that they will be adding lyric translations to their service - an industry signal of the growing importance and opportunity in multilingual music content. 

 

After a record number of applications, the calibre of the final open call’s winners is exceptionally high, with winners representing 12 different countries, and with 32 songs to be translated into 18 different European languages. 

 

Most notable of the winners is Irish comedy duo, The 2 Johnnies, who have amassed over 50 million streams and over 250,000 monthly listeners across all streaming platforms, who will be translating 4 works into Irish, English and Spanish. Also amongst the winners are award-winning Serbian composer and orchestrator Ana Krstajić, currently scoring projects for Apple TV, and Croatian singer songwriter and second-time open call winner Elis Lovric, who has competed to represent Croatia at Eurovision.   

 

In addition to translating selected works via BELEM’s network of human translators, award winners are also given the opportunity to have their full catalogues translated into over 100 languages via BELEM’s AI-powered lyric translation tool, Belem Lyric Studio (BLS). The tool, which is optimised for lyric translation for meaning, uses 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 the lyric translations, resulting in more nuanced outputs. 

 

Robert Singerman, SVP at LyricFind and Belem co-founder, comments: “Lyrics are the soul of a song, and when we make them accessible in multiple languages, we give artists a chance to connect with audiences far beyond their borders. With BELEM and the Lyric Studio, we're combining the best of human creativity and AI innovation to support a more inclusive, licensed, multilingual music ecosystem. These 14 winners represent the future of European music: diverse, genre-spanning, and ready to resonate globally.”

 

Full list of winners: 
 

  • Klara Veteršek (Slovenia – Jazz, pop, electronic)
    Translated from Slovenian into English, German, and French
     

  • Birgit Bidder (Sweden – Retro pop, soul, experimental)
    Translated from Swedish into Spanish
     

  • The 2 Johnnies (Ireland – Musical comedy, Irish pop)
    Translated from English into Irish and Spanish
     

  • Make Like a Tree (Ukraine – Indie-folk, ambient)
    Translated from Ukrainian into Italian
     

  • Leepeck (Poland – Folk, rock, acoustic)
    Translated from Polish into English
     

  • We Bless This Mess (Portugal – Folk-punk, alternative)
    Translated from English into Portuguese
     

  • Elis Lovrić (Croatia – Folk-pop)
    Translated from Croatian into Italian, German, and Polish
     

  • Fuat Tuaç (France/Turkey – Jazz)
    Translated from Turkish into English and French
     

  • Ana Krstajić (Serbia – Classical, film music)
    Translated from Serbian into Spanish and French
     

  • Não Simão Band (Portugal – Alternative, experimental)
    Translated from Portuguese into English
     

  • Soalo (France – Electronic, ambient)
    Translated from French into Italian, Portuguese, English, and Spanish
     

  • Urška Supej (Slovenia - Electric jazz)
    Translated from Slovenian into English, German, and French)
     

  • Christina Quest (Portugal/Finland – Rock, acoustic pop)
    Translated from Portuguese and English into Finnish, Dutch, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, German, French, and Catalan
     

  • JC Maillard, TiMalo, Hector Poullet (Guadeloupe – Creole fusion, literary and musical heritage)

  • Translated from Creole into multiple languages




 

For more information, interviews and images, please contact Theo Fraser on:


Email: theo.fraser@redbrickroad.com 
Mobile: 07788 671272 

 

Notes to Editors:

 

About Belem:

 

Belem’s mission is to make lyrics universally understood and level the playing field for artists and songwriters globally. Through the power of lyric translation, Belem aims to translate lyrics for meaning, so that fans all around the world can understand what any song, in any language, is really saying. 

 

Belem is a non-profit organisation, funded by the European Union and made up of major music industry forces from across the ecosystem. The Belem project also works with talent in the music industry across Europe via their open calls programme. The programme provides funding for artists, songwriters, and publishers to have their work translated into as many languages as they like, offering them the chance to share their music with new audiences across the globe.

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