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Press Releases
The Next Big Thing 2007
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It's back after last year's exhilarating run – the 91Èȱ¬'s quest for the best musical talent in the world ... and we mean WORLD.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service and 91Èȱ¬ World Television are looking for the future of music. On 22 October 2007, they launch a major global music talent search – The Next Big Thing 2007. The competition will be scouring the world looking for exciting new music, bands and performers who will shape the future.
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Anyone can enter the competition and it is completely free and unmediated. Forget the big labels and mainstream music business, The Next Big Thing is looking for boldness and brilliance – musical pioneers who really deserve attention.
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Entries last year came from thousands of musicians from over 40 countries and with 91Èȱ¬ World Service, the biggest international broadcaster in the world with an audience of 183 million listeners in 33 languages worldwide, the 2007 competition will be the biggest yet.
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This year 91Èȱ¬ World Service will be joined by 91Èȱ¬ World Television in the search for The Next Big Thing to expose the new and establish a platform for musicians to create and perform original music.
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Last year's winner, Silva, went on to have a number one hit in her home country of Armenia and played the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
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Geoff Travis, the founder of Rough Trade who signed The Smiths, Travis, The Strokes and many more, said on behalf of last year's judges: "We are very glad to have been asked by the 91Èȱ¬ to be a part of this. We are astonished at the standard of the entries, we are very very pleasantly surprised."
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And the head of the jury, music producer William Orbit, enjoyed the competition so much that he is returning in 2007.
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As well as taking entries via the online site, 91Èȱ¬ World Service will be out on the road, with local events in Mumbai (India), Kingston (Jamaica), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), and Istanbul (Turkey).
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The 91Èȱ¬ has selected a panel of international music experts including Caspar Llewellyn-Smith, Editor of the Observer Music Monthly; Will Hodgkinson, music journalist for Mojo and the Guardian; and Paul Stokes, Features Editor of NME to help choose five finalists.
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There are just two rules: artists must be unsigned and must perform their own original material.
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Entries close on 18 November 2007, and finalists will perform for an all-star jury in London in December.
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One act will be crowned The Next Big Thing 2007 and will perform to a live audience of 3,000 people at London's O2 stadium, alongside some of the most exciting names in music, to celebrate 91Èȱ¬ World Service's 75th anniversary in December.
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91Èȱ¬ World Service Press Office
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