The Protest Song Collective, Singer-Songwriter Elodia Mottot, and Subtitles Adapted by Panthea
Full accessibility for deaf members of the audience at the Protest Song concert.
On June 26, 2025, the Sœurs Jumelles festival in Rochefort had the brilliant idea of inviting the talented Elodia Mottot from Blueprint to song signing the entire concert. It was a moment suspended in time, during which singers Jeanne Added, Camélia Jordana, L-Raphaële Lannadère, and Sandra Nkaké saw their voices take shape through Elodia’s sign language interpretation, presented on stage and on the big screen. To make the evening fully accessible, Panthea provided subtitles adapted for deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members, using the usual color coding, which were displayed on the audience’s smartphones thanks to the panthea.live cloud application.
Sign language and adapted subtitles: a perfect combination.
Sign language singing is an artistic discipline that relies on translating sung lyrics into sign language to deliver a musical interpretation. The lyrics, rhythm, and melodies of a musical work are transcribed through the body, expressions, and gestures of the sign language singer. The musical work, its universe, and the emotions it conveys then take on a visual form, accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences.
In a previous interview with Télérama, Elodia said: “Someone who cannot hear and does not sign at all will not get the full experience from live song signing because most concerts are not subtitled.”
At the Sœurs Jumelles festival, Panthea’s subtitles were combined with song signing, particularly meeting the needs of deaf spectators who do not use sign language. In the visual world of the show directed by Phia Ménard, the energy of song signing matched that of the singers, and the subtitles provided a reference point for meaning. An increasingly comprehensive approach to accessibility.
At the end of the Protest Song concert, deaf audience members of all ages, including a group of teenagers from the CMPP – SESSAD Ecole Jules Ferry, warmly applauded the combination of song signing and adapted subtitles.
This provided additional comfort for the audience members concerned, and we are delighted to have contributed to this!
