03 November 2010
Newsdesk
UK band beats tough field in judging of Europe-wide music contest as Germany-based singer-songwriter wins surprise second prize.
(Hong Kong & London, November 2010) The judges of the i-Mego TopTrakz Challenge, the new Europe-wide music competition designed to showcase the best talent amongst unsigned European bands, have selected a winner – and an unplanned second-place finisher. The HarringTones from the United Kingdom won for their track Age after a panel of expert judges picked them from a 35-strong shortlist. But the judges were so overwhelmed with the quality of entries they decided to add a second prize, choosing Germany-based singer Cathleen for her song Maybe Someday.
The judging panel also selected 10 runners-up. The TopTrakz Chellenge, created by global headphones brand i-Mego, attracted hundreds of entries from across Europe. The submissions represented a wide range of musical genres, including rock, pop, hip hop, reggae, electronic, house, punk, grunge, heavy metal, folk and R&B. The expert judging panel made its choices based partly on artistic merit and partly on the voting support for entrants by their fans via i-Mego’s Facebook page.
One of the judges noted: “The HarringTones show great energy and spark. Age is simply a fantastic rocking track. It’s just a really well-crafted song and the band demonstrates some fine musicianship while creating a sharp and edgy sound. These guys should have a great future. And Cathleen has this beautiful, textured folky sound and a gorgeous voice to match.”
As the winning band, The HarringTones will receive top-range i-Mego headphones and a day of recording in a professional studio, while second place finisher Cathleen will receive i-Mego headphones and a half a day of studio time. All runners-up will receive products from i-Mego’s range of high-quality audio gear. Links to both the winning tracks and those of the runners-up can be found on the i-Mego Facebook page. The runners-up in alphabetical order) are:
404 (France) for Roots Addict
Asthor Odinn (Iceland) for Mamma
The Blacktie Affairs (UK) for Wanna Be Free
David Welfare (UK) for Go
EB11 (Spain) for System Breakdown
Joyshop (UK) for Frost
Kosmonuts (Italy) for Slowdown
Moon Visionairies (UK) for Mr Hollywood
PostMortuM (Netherlands) for Stompin’ 2010
Skeletonjones (Ireland) for The Great Escape
The TopTrakz Challenge is a unique music competition launched across Europe in August for unsigned bands and solo artists of all types. Entrants were invited to submit up to two original numbers. The idea is to help promote music of all types made by great musicians looking for their first big commercial break.
Miranda Hudson, Marketing Director for i-Mego, commented: “The competition attracted hundreds of entries from around Europe and demonstrated that there is real musical talent in pretty much every European country. The shortlist featured so many great tracks, representing just about every type of music, that the judging panel struggled to single out just one band or artist as the winner – so we decided to add the second prize.
“Our congratulations go to the winners and the 10 runners up. We hope The HarringTones and Cathleen can benefit from the studio time we are giving them as a prize and hopefully it will go some way towards helping them establish themselves on the European music scene. Finding music that you love is what i-Mego is all about.”
