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In:Transmedia in Translation and Transculturation
Edited by Vasso Giannakopoulou and Elin Sütiste
[Benjamins Translation Library 167] 2025
► pp. 99–119

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When transmedia music meets translation

The case of Nightwish and their “Élan” Cover Contest

 | Utrecht University
Published online: 20 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.167.05tar
Abstract
This essay analyzes the products of a fan cover contest that embody two central features epitomizing translation in the performing arts: transmediality and performativity. The “Élan” Cover Contest launched by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish is an example of the current “participatory model of culture” (Jenkins, Ford, and Green 2013, 2) that makes music a transmedial practice, as defined by Paola Brembilla (2019). Here I work from Lucile Desblache’s theories on music translation (2019) and from Cristina Marinetti’s notion of translation as “performative rewriting” (Marinetti 2018a) to analyze two of the entries of the “Élan” Cover Contest. I argue that the fan cover contest is a transmedial practice, and all the contestants are translators in the broad sense of the word, because translation in music is not limited to the translation of lyrics (Desblache 2019). An analysis of the covers under scrutiny reveals that when transmedia music meets translation, the outcome is multimodal, plurisemiotic, and performative.
Article outline
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Music, translation, and the translation of music
  • Transmediality and music
  • Performativity
  • Version in Italian and Cibiana’s dialect (Sirgaus)
    • JSL version (Cel Works)
  • Conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
References (74)
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