Thousands entered the Glastonbury festival emerging talent competition, and now the 90 acts on the longlist have been announced. These ninety will be whittled down to eight who’ll perform at a live final in Pilton for a chance to grace one of the main stages at Glasto.
Glastonbury Festival have published a YouTube playlist of all 90 acts (below)…Who would you send through??
I was one of the thirty judges in the initial part of the competition, so here are the three artists I put forward to the longlist.
It was, as ever, an absolute nightmare getting the hundreds of entries down to just three and there were at least a dozen artists who more than deserved to go through to the next round.
MUSIC LIKE DIRT SELECTION
N’FAMADY KOUYATÉ
Guinea meets Wales in an infectious explosion of energy and sound. The ten-piece band led by Kouyaté on his balafon (a wooden xylophone) mix traditional Guinean songs and instrumentation with a bit of Welsh, guitars, brass and fun!
MYSTERY TEAM
As a huge fan of the punkier end of the Beasties catalogue, Mystery Team are manna from heaven – the MC’s rhyme while the guitars, keys and sax keep you nodding. If the live version of their latest single, ‘Felony’ (below) is anything to go by they’re even better live and check a demo version of an excellent track called ‘J Zilla’ on their reddit group.
MOM + THE REBELS
Purveyors of what they call ‘Rebel pop’ – Irish folk and R’n’b. The interplay between Dejay’s deep bass and voice perfectly complements Lisa Canny’s brilliance on both banjo and vocals.
Good luck to all ninety longlisters who made it through from thousands of entries.