FAQFAQ

POLYGLOT is the European Song Exchange Incubator. It is a four-year long project launched in early 2024 that aims to revolutionize the music industry in Europe and break the hegemony of the English language. Our eight partners in seven countries created a song exchange model that helps artists from Hungary, Italy, Catalonia, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal and Latvia to find new audiences beyond their borders.

POLYGLOT, the European Song Exchange Incubator cherishes the diversity of smaller languages in Europe, and aims to break the hegemony of English songs. It does this by introducing a song exchange model built on  adaptation of non-English hits among participating countries.

Polyglot means knowing, written in, or more than one language. Synonym: multilingual.

The coordinator of the project is Music Hungary, part of the Hangvető branch, and the Partners of the project are Finisterre, Lyricfind, Music Export Latvia, Music Export Poland, Music Export Ukraine, SCL Recording and Unison. All Partners are expert bodies in their respective countries.

The team is quite set right now, but we never say no to talent – send your CV to info@polyglotmusic.eu and we’ll see if we can work together somehow!

POLYGLOT’s Open Call awaits non-English speaking entries that have the potential to become hits abroad between May 21 and July 31.  The Open Call is open for any EU citizen or Creative Europe country member who speaks the official languages of the seven participating countries (Catalonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine), and who wrote a song in one of the languages.

As the POLYGLOT project is funded by the European Union, we have to make sure that the songs and authors we support are based in EU countries or Creative Europe member countries.

If your submitted song has been re-recorded or covered by another artist, we would like to learn the name and contact details of the original performer, and, as feasible, details of other artists who have covered the song. 

We close the Open Call at the end of July and will select the final songs in September 2024. You can expect a response at the end of September 2024, the latest.

POLYGLOT cherishes the diversity of the smaller languages in Europe, and aims to break the hegemony of English songs. Which is why we are looking for non-English songs to translate or adapt and produce, release and promote within the framework of this project, however, having an English version of your song does not exclude you from the application. 

POLYGLOT is about promoting cultural and linguistic diversity, and we expect and accept songs in the smaller languages of Europe. If your song does not have lyrics, it is not eligible for this call, unfortunately.

For now, POLYGLOT runs in the seven participating countries: Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Catalonia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. We can only accept applications from these countries, but if our model proves successful, we hope to extend its scope.

Please fill out the questionnaire nevertheless, send an email to info@polyglotmusic.eu, and make sure to attach your song to your email. Thank you!

Consent is key in any personal interaction, especially if we’re mixing business with pleasure. In other words – we want to make sure that every author feels comfortable with the fact that 

• Other authors and artists will work on their creation (translate the lyrics and re-record the tunes), 
• New versions of their songs will be registered and distributed in Europe,
• The mentioned new authors will receive rights after the adapted versions. 

We need to make sure that we don’t infringe their rights in any way. 

Let us guess – is it the singer asking this question? :) As authors have the rights for their song, we need their consent and approval for the application. We need to make sure that all authors are on board with the terms and conditions of the open call.

The Open Call is open for any EU citizen or from a Creative Europe country who speaks the official languages of the seven participating countries (Catalonia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Ukraine), and has a song in one of them – so yes, please!

You absolutely do not, but if you do, that’s great.

Yes, you can, and please do! However, please note that songs that have been awarded, or have higher streaming numbers might have a bigger chance to make it to the final song pool.

Please send the song that you think has the biggest potential. Our curators will not have the time to go through your playlist and pick their favorite song – we trust you to do it for us.

We are grateful for your application and we are sorry that your song didn’t make it to the final 70 songs. However, please note that it was a very tough competition!

Our project supports small languages in Europe, so if your song is written in one of the official or minority languages of the seven countries, you are more than welcome to submit it. 

Good for you! We’re joking. If you’re both the author and performer of the song, but realized that you can only add one role, please select the ‘author’ in the application.

If your submitted song has been selected, congratulations and welcome to POLYGLOT! Our eight partners will now go through and choose the songs they wish to re-record in their language and country. If your song is chosen, we will reach out and sign a contract with you and all copyright holders about the further steps – which entails the translations of your lyrics, the re-recording of your tunes by another artist, and the distribution of the adapted song in another country – or more. 

The songs will be selected by POLYGLOT’s Curatorial Board (one representative from each Partner, and a music professional outside the Project).

As much as we love a good mystery, POLYGLOT is all about transparency and equality. If your song gets selected, being part of the promotional activity of the songs is crucial for the Project’s success, so this is kind of a must.

If your song’s been selected, you will have a say both regarding the new lyrics and the re-recorded version of your song. More details to follow in the contract we will send you.

If your song’s been selected to be part of the final 70 songs, your song will be likely picked up by one of our Partners, who will translate the lyrics to their own language, and re-record the tunes with a local artist. You will be able to follow the process but not be part of the re-recording itself.

POLYGLOT is the European Song Exchange Incubator – we are testing a concept, to see if non-English songs can find their audience across borders. As much as we would love to, we cannot guarantee that the re-recorded songs will become international hits. That being said, we will do our best to reach as many people as we can with the new songs.

If selected, your re-recorded song will be distributed globally on selected streaming platforms, and our partners will do extra promotional activities in their countries. (So if you’re a songwriter applying from Hungary, and our Portuguese partner loves your song and wants to import it to Portugal, then the re-recorded Portuguese version will be available on Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, Apple Music etc, and SCL record label company will promote it in Portugal. Your song can be picked up by more than one Partner though, so there’s a chance that there will be several adaptations of your song, with a similar trajectory)

If selected, your re-recorded song will be performed by a local artist in the participating country. The artist will be chosen by our local Partner. As our project aims to support local artists and non-English songs, we will make sure to choose the adapting artist in a way that the adaptation will cherish the original tunes.

You will keep your copyrights from the song adaptation as well, so you will for sure benefit from the project, if your song gets selected. 

You can find the list of the participating countries by clicking on this link.

If your song gets selected by our partner organizations, we will find a local artist who will translate your lyrics and re-record the tunes. It’s up to the local artist whether they want to re-record only the melody, or the instrumental part as well. If they decide to record only the melody, we would like to use your original instrumental track for the adapted song as well.

We ask you to submit a maximum of 3 songs to the Open Call.

If you have 2-3 lines in English, but the rest of the song is in one of the official or minority languages of the participating countries, feel free to apply.

We expect songs that have already been released and published, so please submit your already released hits!