Do you have what it takes to be the next Wallflowers or Christina Aguilera? If so, your big break could be right around the corner.
The American Music Awards ® (AMAs) and The Coca-Cola Company, together with dick clark communications (DCC) and The CMJ Network (CMJ), today launched “The American Music Awards presents the Coca-Cola New Music Award” competition.
This brand new award category will honor the best unsigned band or artist in America and the winner will perform live on The 29th Annual American Music Awards telecast in January 2002 on ABC-TV, an unprecedented opportunity for emerging talent.
To enter the competition, artists and bands must submit three original songs along with their biography and a photo either online or via mail. In order to accommodate the thousands of entries expected, www.newmusicaward.com was officially launched today. The site offers detailed information on the competition and its eligibility requirements and serves as a venue to submit entries.
The deadline for online entries is July 24, and they must be submitted in either an MP3 or RealAudio format. Entries can also be submitted on audiocassette or CD and mailed to “The AMAs Presents The Coca-Cola New Music Award Competition,” c/o CMJ, 151 W. 25th Street,12th Floor, New York, NY 10001.
“This new award category represents a major milestone in AMA’s history,” said Dick Clark, AMA creator and executive producer. “For the first time, the American Music Awards, working with Coca-Cola and CMJ, will recognize the importance of emerging artists and bring new music to the forefront of the music industry.”
In August, 50 artists/bands will be chosen by a team of CMJ writers and editors and featured on www.newmusicaward.com. A judging panel will then select 10 entrants from the 50 finalists to perform in a play-off competition at the CMJ Music Marathon to be held in New York City on Sept. 13.
After reviewing the 10 performances, the panel will choose five semi-finalists to participate in a mini-tour of several colleges and universities around the country, culminating in a semi-finalist showdown where three finalists will be selected. The finalists will compete for the AMA Coca-Cola New Music Award in Los Angeles, days prior to the AMA telecast in early January 2002.
The distinguished panel of judges from the music industry will include Dick Clark, CMJ founder and CEO Robert Haber and a local music personality from each play-off market.
“The New Music Award was created to recognize and celebrate the talents of unknown artists in a spectacular way,” said Terry Montoya, group director of entertainment and national consumer promotions, Coca-Cola North America. “Coca-Cola has a rich history of showcasing new talent, but our partnerships with dick clark communications and CMJ take this opportunity to a new level. This award gives emerging talent the chance to perform live in a line-up of music superstars and have their own music heard by industry leaders and millions of television viewers.”
“For more than 20 years, CMJ has been proud to discover and champion the world’s best new artists,” said CMJ’s Haber, “The Coca-Cola New Music Award competition will provide the ultimate platform from which to catapult dynamic new talent from unknown to star. It’s an incredible opportunity for deserving musicians nationwide.”
The American Music Awards is a landmark television special celebrating its 29th year on the air in 2002. Winners in 20 award categories, spanning eight musical genres, are selected by the American record-buying public. The show is one of the highest-rated awards specials on television each year.