The Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition gives new and unsigned artists from the UK and Ireland the chance to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at the world’s most famous festival. Today the longlist of 120 acts selected by the first round judges (including Breaking More Waves) was published. This longlist will be cut down into a shortlist of just 8 by another group of judges. The lucky 8 will then be invited to play at a live final in Pilton in April to decide the winner.
It’s the fourth time that Breaking More Waves has been involved in judging the opening round of the competition, which this year had in the region of 7,000 entries. For 2015, for our part, we listened to just over 150 acts from a variety of genres from folk, indie, rock, pop, soul, electronic and more and were asked to choose 3 for the longlist.
Our three choices are:
1st Felix Hagan & The Family
Brilliantly absurd and dandyish musical theatre that will have you dancing on the tables. Our number 1 choice.
2nd Wyldest
Already featured a number of times on Breaking More Waves. Hazy, melancholy, ethereal pop that twinkles and shimmers with loveliness. For fans of Beach House and 80's indie.
3rd Fjokra
A bit of a ‘wild card’ choice perhaps, but this confusing multi-genre embracing alt pop/rock full of hyperactivity stood out for its plethora of ideas.
We’re looking forward to listening to all the acts nominated, and of course seeing who the long list judges choose for the live final. In previous years some of the bands who have made the longlist (but don't necessarily make the shortlist) go on to do well anyway, even if they don't make the final. For example the likes of Circa Waves, Laura Doggett and Slaves have all cropped up on this list and have then gone on to get record deals.
You can see the full longlist for 2015 here and listen to most of the nominated acts here, except for a small handful who didn't supply a public link to the song they entered, including one of our own choices Wyldest (although you can hear their new single above).
Interesting stuff. I shall have a look and listen to the long list asap!
ReplyDeleteI was much taken by Wyldest at Green Man 2014 and they got to play through the emerging artist competition that it runs.
That performance was indeed the occasion where the announced the name change to Wyldest from Wildest Dreams.