Glastonbury Festival has announced its 2020 Emerging Talent Competition is to go ahead as planned.
Supported by PRS For Music and PRS Foundation, the competition gives new UK and Ireland-based acts of any musical genre the chance to compete for a slot on one of the festival's main stages, with this year's winners to be given a slot at Glastonbury 2021.
The winners and two runners-up of the free-to-enter competition will also be awarded £5,000 and £2,500 talent development prizes, respectively, from PRS Foundation.
The 90 acts to make the longlist were picked by Glastonbury's judging panel, made up of 30 of the UK’s best online music writers & bloggers, from the thousands of entries received in January 2020. Each of the bloggers has chosen their favourite three acts. You can hear a playlist of the acts on the Glastonbury website here.
I'm so pleased that we're still able to shine a light on the best new acts in the UK and Ireland
Emily Eavis
These acts will now be whittled down to a shortlist of just eight acts, by judges including Emily Eavis and Glastonbury's head of music programming, Nick Dewey. The shortlist will be announced in the week of May 18.
Emily Eavis said: “At a time when the live music industry is on hold, and upcoming artists are not able to get out there and showcase their talents, I’m so pleased that we’re still able to shine a light on the best new acts in the UK and Ireland through the Emerging Talent Competition. I’m hugely looking forward to hearing the 90 acts on the longlist - and I really hope that lots of others will listen and choose their favourites too.”
While there will be no live finals (or obvious reasons, the winners will be chosen from the shortlist by the 15 music business professionals who would have judged the live finals. They will use the song and live performance video each act entered with to make their decision.
Joe Frankland, CEO of PRS Foundation said: "The Emerging Talent Competition is an incredible opportunity and has been a fantastic springboard for so many successful music creators, including Declan McKenna, Marie White, Flohio and Izzy Bizu. This unique combination of the opportunity to perform at the iconic Glastonbury Festival and receive vital career support has had a real and sustainable impact on those artists’ development. I'm very much looking forward to seeing who the winner and runners-up are this year."
The winner of 2019's contest, singer-songwriter Marie White, has since signed with Decca Records and Universal Music Publishing Group.
Amy Field, Senior Events Manager at PRS For Music, added: "We are so pleased the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition is still going ahead. It’s something positive to focus on during this uncertain time and with the unfortunate cancellation of Glastonbury Festival this year. We know that many music creators are currently facing challenges, and so we are proud to be able to continue this project with PRS Foundation and Glastonbury to keep the momentum going and provide some much needed support to artists taking part."
Make sure you can access vital music biz information wherever you are by signing up for our digital edition here.
