When it was first announced that it would be allowed, the responses were somewhat varying if mostly negative, but i think now we can pretty much all agree the results weren't great. In my view, it just took away a lot of the ethics and actual live feeling of some entries, and made the "live" performance no different than any typical TV show appearance.
Not only could it be seen as cheating, it actually detracted from some entries musically. The overuse of huge choirs, Bulgaria being the worst example, felt totally out of place in the ESC and swamped the actual live vocals. All of them, IMO just felt tacky and unnecessary for the song, which would have sounded better with a small live backing vocal group.
Also, while they were explicitly only supposed to be backing vocals, some entrants like Moldova actually used a prerecorded track to practically replace the part of the lead vocals, leading to a mediocre and inauthentic mimed performance effect.
Finally, some performances like Latvia, Czechia, Austria, Georgia and Ireland may have been musically harmed by allowing pre-recorded vocals, as it may have been an excuse to not give them enough time to rehearse and set up their mixing/monitoring etc.
So i think overall, this should be considered a "failed experiment" that should never have been done at all. Please don't repeat it, go back to live vocals only next year. Does anyone disagree?
Not only could it be seen as cheating, it actually detracted from some entries musically. The overuse of huge choirs, Bulgaria being the worst example, felt totally out of place in the ESC and swamped the actual live vocals. All of them, IMO just felt tacky and unnecessary for the song, which would have sounded better with a small live backing vocal group.
Also, while they were explicitly only supposed to be backing vocals, some entrants like Moldova actually used a prerecorded track to practically replace the part of the lead vocals, leading to a mediocre and inauthentic mimed performance effect.
Finally, some performances like Latvia, Czechia, Austria, Georgia and Ireland may have been musically harmed by allowing pre-recorded vocals, as it may have been an excuse to not give them enough time to rehearse and set up their mixing/monitoring etc.
So i think overall, this should be considered a "failed experiment" that should never have been done at all. Please don't repeat it, go back to live vocals only next year. Does anyone disagree?