Vodafone Upcoming Artist 2011 competition

To date, around 50 emerging artists have sent in their submission for the Vodafone Upcoming Artist 2011 – a music competition organised by Vodafone Malta, Mro Sigmund Mifsud and The Palace Hotel, Sliema.

In view of this positive feedback, the organisers decided to extend the submission period by two weeks, till March 7.

The first call for submission was issued through Facebook, and interest has been increasing ever since.

This event is an opportunity for new Maltese talent to perform before an audience and compete for the title of Vodafone Upcoming Artist 2011.

The winner will also get a weekend break for two at The Palace Hotel’s Music Suite.

Twelve young artists have made it through the auditions already been held. The chosen artists will perform live in public during the Vodafone Jamming Sessions at Temptasian at The Palace to be held on March 1, 15 and 29, and on April 12.

The first 12 artists to make it through are Mikaela Attard, Adrienne Azzopardi, Paul Cassar, Stephanie Desjardins, Vittorio Gauci, Christopher Grech, Owen Grech, Anne Marie Mayo, Lyndsay Pace, Rebecca Vassallo, Louisa Wirth and Peter Paul Zammit.

Each event will host a special guest and will declare a night’s finalist, narrowing down the competition to four finalists. Pawlu Borg Bonaci, lead singer of Fakawi, accompanied by Wayne and Peter Borg has confirmed he will be performing on the March 1 event.

All four finalists will win a lunch or dinner for two at one of The Palace’s restaurants. Videos of the four finalists will be uploaded both on Youtube and on Vodafone Malta’s Facebook page, and the public will have the opportunity to vote via SMS.

All those who vote will also get a chance to win a weekend break two-night stay in The Palace’s View Suite on bed and breakfast basis. The artists who win on each respective night, as well as the overall winner, will be announced on Vodafone Malta’s Facebook page.

Mro Mifsud, who took on the role of producer of this initiative and who also headed the judging panel, spoke about the selection process at the auditions. He said preference was given to artists who played musical instruments and who wrote their own songs.

“Being an artist myself, I understand the difficulties new artists have to face. It is not easy for upcoming artists to be provided an opportunity to perform in front of a public, and I can assure you this is an opportunity upcoming artists will not want to miss,” said Mro Mifsud.

Interested upcoming artists can submit their names by sending an e-mail to sigmund.mif sud@gmail.com by March 7. The competition is open to anybody aged over 16 who performs pop and rock. Vodafone and The Palace employees are also eligible to take part.