A Eurovision delegation does not send a finished mix. It sends a stem package: the instrumental bed, a separate backing vocal stem, and a click track that only the performer hears through their in-ear monitors, sometimes carrying a ghost piano for an a cappella opening. A venue's sound team builds three different mixes from those same files, one for the arena PA, one for the in-ear feed, and one for the international broadcast, and the broadcast bus has its own fixed target, minus 23 LUFS. I am credited as sound producer of the contest version of Ziferblat's Bird of Pray, Ukraine's 2025 entry, and that job starts here, with what gets exported before anyone touches a fader in the venue.
What exactly is in the stem package?
A set of separate elements, not a stereo file. A working account from inside Eurovision's sound department describes a full backing track built from an instrumental bed, a dedicated backing vocal stem, and a click hidden on the in-ear feed alone (Sound On Sound, vocal mixing lessons from Eurovision). During an a cappella intro, that click can carry a reference piano part the singer hears and the audience does not. None of it plays through the house PA by itself. The venue combines the stems differently for each destination, which is the only practical way to run 37 different songs from 37 delegations through one predictable technical chain, the same stem logic behind how a backing track gets built around one live instrument.
Why does the backing vocal get its own stem instead of riding in the mix?
Because in-ear monitoring depends on controlling exactly what each performer hears. Delegations perform through IEMs rather than stage wedges, which sharply cuts how much speaker sound spills back into the handheld or head microphone (Sound On Sound, above). Less spill on the lead vocal mic means a cleaner signal reaches the broadcast desk, and a clean live signal is what lets the final mix sit close to the commercial release the rules require. Wedges stay on stage as a backup and to give the dancers energy to move to, but the lead vocal's clarity depends on the IEM chain working first.
What can be pre-recorded, and what can't?
Backing vocals can ride on the track now. The lead vocal cannot. Every vocal used to be sung live at Eurovision, backing parts included, until the rule changed and backing vocals were allowed onto the backing track. What stayed fixed: a "lead dub," where the track quietly doubles the lead vocal, is against the rules, the performance cannot read as mimed, and no pitch correction is permitted on the live signal (Sound On Sound, above). That last restriction is stricter than most commercial pop production, where correcting a lead vocal is closer to routine than exception, a gap I map out in the four constraints of a contest revamp.
Why does the broadcast mix have to land at minus 23 LUFS?
Because the show has to sit next to everything else on a national broadcaster's schedule. The EBU's R128 recommendation sets loudness for broadcast delivery at minus 23 LUFS with a narrow tolerance either side (EBU, loudness normalisation R128). Deliver hotter than that and the signal gets turned down at the point of broadcast, flattening the dynamics a mix engineer just built. Deliver quieter and the song reads thin against the commercial break on either side. A vocal chain built for that target usually runs a moderate compressor into a faster limiter set well above it, holding the loudest peaks without squashing the whole performance flat.
Who checks the stems before the delegation ever reaches the venue?
A technical review, weeks ahead of rehearsals. Each country's stems get checked against the show's delivery spec before the live broadcasts, historically at Abbey Road Studios, to confirm the files actually match the format the venue's system expects (Sound On Sound, above). A submission that fails that check does not get a second pass on air, so the stem package is really the first deliverable of the whole production, ahead of blocking, costumes, or lighting design.
Where does a "sound producer" credit sit in that chain?
At the point where a studio recording becomes something built to survive a live broadcast. My credit on "Bird of Pray" is sound producer of the contest version specifically (Suspilne, 10.03.2025), a different job from writing the original studio single. The contest version has to keep the record's identity while fitting the fixed number of performers on stage, the three-minute limit, and the stem format above, none of which the studio master was built for. That is the work a contest-version credit actually describes, distinct from composing the song or mastering the commercial release, the credits I carry on Stefania.
Frequently asked
Do backing vocals have to be sung live at Eurovision? No. Backing vocals can be pre-recorded and carried on the backing track. Only the lead vocal has to be sung live, and the track cannot carry a hidden lead vocal to help it.
What loudness does a Eurovision broadcast mix target? Minus 23 LUFS, the EBU R128 delivery standard used across European broadcast, so the show sits at a consistent level next to everything else on the schedule.
Is a sound producer credit the same as a songwriting credit? No. A sound producer of a contest version prepares the live-broadcast delivery and the stem format the venue and broadcaster require. Composing and songwriting credits cover the song itself.
If you are prepping a delegation's stems or a live broadcast segment
Send me the format spec and the air date. What comes back is a stem package built to the loudness target and the IEM and PA split above. Credits behind that work are at /credits, background at /about.