LELEK’s performance of “Andromeda” at the Croatia Eurovision Song Contest 2026 is one of those rare moments where vocal technique and raw emotion collide so completely that you don’t need to understand a single word to feel it.
The song is sung in Croatian, yet it communicates something deeply human: a sense of mourning, power, and collective womanhood that transcends language entirely. For singers wanting to understand how to create that kind of impact, breaking down “Andromeda” by LELEK offers a masterclass in chest voice, belting, and vocal color.
Chest Voice and Thyroid Tilt
From the very opening of “Andromeda,” LELEK establishes a rich, grounded chest voice. The vocal folds are in thick contact, and they’re sitting comfortably around the F#4, well within the chest voice register. What makes the delivery so compelling, though, is the constant interplay between thick and thin vocal folds.
Rather than locking into a single texture, they move fluidly between chest voice and something closer to a thinner, more head-voice-adjacent quality. This kind of seamless transition is the hallmark of a genuinely flexible voice: one that can shift registers without a noticeable break or tonal click.
Underpinning all of this is a significant amount of thyroid tilt. The thyroid cartilage (the structure that houses the vocal folds) tilts forward to elongate the folds, and this is what separates a spoken sound from a sung one. In “Andromeda,” this tilt is what gives the chest voice its anguished, almost mournful quality.
It creates that sensation of a deep sadness being channeled through the voice, particularly when LELEK is sustaining on the same pitch and needs the sound to feel genuinely expressive rather than flat or monotonous.
Vocal Colors and Larynx Position
One of the most striking features of “Andromeda” by LELEK is the variety of vocal colors on display, especially when multiple voices are singing together. Here are some of the distinct textures used throughout the performance:
- Lowered larynx with slight nasality: creates a darker, fuller timbre that borders on a classical or chant-like quality, reminiscent of Gregorian chant in its resonance and depth.
- Alto line: the lowest vocal line sits around E-flat 4, made to sound even lower through larynx lowering and soft palate positioning.
- Thinner vocal folds / mix voice: used in higher passages to lighten the sound without losing the same emotional color palette.
- Belt with cricoid tilt: when the cricoid cartilage rocks back, the vocal folds become thicker than thick, producing the loud, ringing cry that punctuates the song’s most powerful moments.
The blending of these different voices and colors is extraordinarily skillful. When singers perform together, vibrato is often reduced or removed to allow the voices to lock together cleanly, and that’s exactly what happens in “Andromeda.” The relatively straight tone is both a stylistic choice and a practical one for ensemble singing.
Belting: What It Is and What It Isn’t
The belt in “Andromeda” by LELEK is the emotional peak of the performance, and it’s worth understanding exactly how it works. Belting is not about pushing more air or forcing more volume. It is about the vocal fold closure itself creating a higher sub-glottic pressure within the chest cavity. When the cricoid cartilage tips back and the folds thicken maximally, the result is a naturally loud, ringing sound that feels almost inevitable rather than effortful.
The belt really begins to come into its own above G4, and by the time the voices are up around C5 and beyond, the sound starts to pop and ring in a way that is almost physiologically exciting for the listener, connected to mirror neurons and the human instinct to respond to the sound of someone cheering or calling out. That is precisely why those notes in “Andromeda” feel so visceral.
There is one moment in the performance where the belt edges slightly into pressed territory: the sound spreads a little, becomes a touch too loud, and the result is a slight wobble or missed note at the end of a phrase. This is a common and very human thing to happen in a high-stakes performance.
The fix is not to push harder, but actually to trust the setup. Once the belt is properly in place (with high tongue, good vocal fold closure in the lower range, and the cricoid doing its job) the voice can navigate higher without needing to manufacture extra volume.
Tongue Position in the Upper Register
Tongue position is one of the most important and least discussed elements of belting, and “Andromeda” provides a clear visual example of both what to aim for and what to watch out for.
When belting in the upper range, the tongue needs to stay high (particularly on the sides), and the back of the tongue must be allowed to hollow slightly to give the larynx room to rise. If the tongue drops, the larynx gets pushed down, the sound spreads, and hitting those high notes becomes exponentially harder.
In “Andromeda” by LELEK, there are moments where the tongue position is beautifully executed and moments (particularly on the wider mouth shapes) where the tongue drops a little more than ideal. For professional singers in performance, this may not matter.
But for anyone learning to belt, focusing on keeping the tongue elevated and the mouth from opening too wide is one of the most practical and immediately effective adjustments you can make.
The Power of Performing in Another Language
There is something profound about “Andromeda” by LELEK that goes beyond technique. It is the reminder that vocal communication is fundamentally emotional, not linguistic. The performance is entirely in Croatian, yet listeners who don’t speak a word of it report feeling deeply moved, connected, and even physically affected by the sound.
That is what great singing does. The voice, shaped by thyroid tilt, by cry quality, by the colors of chest and mix and belt, becomes a direct channel to human feeling. Technique is simply the vehicle that makes that possible with consistency, safety, and intention.
If you want to learn more about how you can learn to implement these singing techniques into your own voice, let’s sit down for a chat and discuss if the vocal academy is the right fit for you. You can join us here.