The first winners of the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards have been revealed. Following the announcement of the twenty-four nominees at Reeperbahn, an international jury selected twelve winners, who represent the European sound of today and tomorrow.

The winners are:
Bishop Briggs (UK) and Lxandra (FI) [Pop],
Pale Waves (UK) and Pip Blom (NL) [Rock],
Smerz (NO) Stelartronic (AT) [Electronic],
Rosalía (ES) and Aya Nakamura (FR) [RnB/Urban],
Blackwave. (BE), Reykjavíkurdætur (IS) [Hip Hop/Rap],
Avec (AT) and Albin Lee Meldau (SE) [Singer-songwriter].

The Music Moves Europe Talent Awards are the new European Union Prize for popular and contemporary music. The prizes will be awarded at ESNS (Eurosonic Noorderslag) in Groningen. Additionally, the general public will select another winner from each category through the Public Choice Award through online voting, starting today. The Public Choice Award winners will be revealed at the award ceremony on Wednesday January 16, 2019.

The Jury
The international jury for the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards consists of Huw Stephens (Presenter BBC Radio 1), Julia Gudzent (Festival Programmer Melt!), Katia Giampaolo (CEO Estragon Club Italy), Kristian Kostov (Winner EBBA + Public Choice Award 2018) and Wilbert Mutsaers (Head of Content, Spotify Benelux). Representing the organizing parties are Robert Meijerink (Booker ESNS) as the chairman of the Jury and Bjørn Pfarr (Booker Reeperbahn Festival) as the vice-chairman of the jury.

The Prize
The aim of the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards is to celebrate new and upcoming artists from Europe and support them in order to help them develop and accelerate their international careers. Therefore, the prize package consists of €5000 tour and promotion support, several performances at ESNS, free publicity and a tailor made training programme.

Succeeding the European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA), the annual Music Moves Europe Talent Awards are co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, with the additional support of the Municipality of Groningen, Province of Groningen and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The awards are presented by ESNS and Reeperbahn Festival, in cooperation with Yourope, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), Liveurope, Live DMA, European Music Exporters Exchange (EMEE) and Digital Music Europe (DME).

Music Moves Europe
Music is one of the most popular forms of art, widely consumed, and a vibrant expression of Europe’s cultural diversity. Music Moves Europe, the overarching framework for the European Commission’s policies and actions in support of the European music sector, and Creative Europe, the EU funding programme for the culture and audiovisual sectors, aim to help the music sector flourish by, among other things, supporting the European Border Breakers Awards in previous years. As from now, to enhance creativity, diversity and competitiveness even better, this former prize is being replaced by the annual Music Moves Europe Talent Awards.

On the Music Moves Europe Talent Awards: www.musicmoveseuropetalentawards.eu
On Creative Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/about_en
On Music Moves Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/actions/music- moves-europe_en
Facebook: Music Moves Europe Talent Awards,
Creative Europe Twitter: @mme_awards, @europe_creative
Instagram: mme_awards

Contact
Nikki McNeill | Global Publicity
nikki@globalpublicity.co.uk