It’s no secret that there are some Goan folk that eat, drink, sleep and even breathe music. In Goa, music has evolved spectacularly with the state having produced some famous musicians and singers. These include greats like Lata Mangeshkar, Antonio Xavier Vaz(a.k.a Chic Chocolate), the late Emiliano Da Cruz, Remo Fernandes, Chris Perry and so many more. Of course, a lot of these are long gone, having enthralled people with their performances in the past. Now, it’s the younger generation’s turn to make people dance to their tunes. But in today’s world, everything is a competition and not all make it. To give people a chance, talent hunts are held at different levels. The Red Bull Spotlight college band hunt is one such talent hunt.
Scoping out the talent across the country
Red Bull Spotlight is a new programme to find and support top talent across various fields starting with a massive band hunt. This talent hunt started some months ago. Competitions were held across 11 cities in the country with one winning band for each city. The cities that had participants were Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Goa and Pune.
The judges for the talent hunt are people that have made it big in the field of music entertainment. They are music journalists Amit Gurbaxani and Anurag Tagat; head of programming for OML/NH7 Weekender, Debayan Deb; artist manager at Mixtape, Anu Anna George and founder-partner of subculture think-tank 4/4 Entertainment and the non-profit Control ALT Delete, Nikhil Udupa.
Each of the finalists was given studio time to record one song. Now, the voting begins. Goa’s winning band is from Chowgule College in Margao. They call themselves TNT and their choice of genre is blues/rock. The terms of the competition now state that all nine songs will be available to listen to and vote for, for one month. Once the votes have been tallied, the winning band will walk away with a real prize.
May the best band win
The winning band will get the opportunity to record a full-length album at a professional studio. Additionally, they will get a number of other benefits, including a press kit – complete with a photo shoot and album art for their newly recorded album. They will also get to participate in an intimate Q and A session with industry experts, including artists, artist managers and booking agents, venue managers and more, giving them an in-depth look into the functioning of the live music industry in India.
The finalists
Alongside TNT from Goa, there’s heavy metal band Illucia from Bengaluru; singer-songwriter Surya Ganjoo from Pune; Hindi progressive/alternative rock band, Last Minute from Mumbai; hard/alternative rock band, Drone from Kolkata; rock band Sword from Hyderabad; Deathcore band Jammers Graveyard from Guwahati; progressive/alternative rock band Khalnayak from Delhi; and hip-hop/soul band Amogh & The Homies from Chennai.
May the best band win this opportunity of a lifetime! To vote, click on the link – http://www.redbull.in/spotlight
Information credit
Redbull
ItsGoa/JULY/KDGP
