Music Moves Europe Talent Awards winners revealed

The first winners of the new Music Moves Europe Talent Awards, presented at Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in January, have been revealed.

Following the announcement of the 24 nominees at Reeperbahn Festival in September, an international jury have selected 12 winners – two apiece in six genre-based categories.

The winners are:

Pop: Bishop Briggs (UK) and Lxandra (FI)
Rock: Pale Waves (UK) and Pip Blom (NL)
Electronic: Smerz (NO) Stelartronic (AT)
R&B/urban: Rosalía (ES) and Aya Nakamura (FR)
Hip hop/rap: Blackwave (BE), Reykjavíkurdætur (IS)
Singer-songwriter: Avec (AT) and Albin Lee Meldau (SE)

The Music Moves Europe Talent Awards, part of the Music Moves Europe initiative, were announced in August as a replacement for the long-running European Border Breakers Awards (EBBAs). They are co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Commission, with the additional support of the Municipality of Groningen, Province of Groningen and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

The winners were selected by a jury comprising Huw Stephens (presenter, BBC Radio 1), Julia Gudzent (festival programmer, Melt!), Katia Giampaolo (CEO, Estragon Club Italy), Kristian Kostov (winner of the EBBA public choice award 2018) and Wilbert Mutsaers (head of content, Spotify Benelux).

The awards – plus an additional prize, the public choice award, voted for online by the general public – will be awarded at ESNS in Groningen, Netherlands, on 16 January 2019.

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