Harvest Media Center
Online Voting for 2009 CBC Galaxie Rising Star Contest Goes Live
September 8, 2009
Leading up to the Galaxie Rising Star Showcase—presented by the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in partnership with Galaxie, CBC's continuous music network—the CBC has launched an online voting site where you can find out more about this year's finalists and vote for your favourite.
The online voting is one factor is deciding this year's Galaxie Rising Star, and will be open until noon on September 17th—the day before the five finalists will take the stage for the Rising Star Showcase.
At the Showcase, taking place at 2pm on Friday, September 18th at Dolan's Pub, the finalists will be judged by a panel of industry experts and by audience ballots. The three modes of voting will be combined and tallied to determine the winner.
The five hopeful candidates are Port City chanteuse, Babette Hayward, New Denmark's bluegrass storyteller Jens Jeppesen, Fredericton's reggae-rockers Weak Size Fish, alternative roots band Sleepy Driver and Becca deHaan & the Love Me Three Times Band.
"This year might be one of the all around strongest groups of artists we've ever had play in the Showcase, which is saying something given past winners include the likes of Keith Hallett, Ross Neilsen, and Matt Andersen—all of whom are playing main stages at this year's Festival," says Brent Staeben, Music Director for Harvest. "We want to give these talented finalists as much support and exposure as we can, which is why we're not only bringing back the online voting this year, but we're bringing the Showcase back to the Festival schedule."
As one of the region's most important and highly competitive musical competitions, the Galaxie Rising Star Showcase is a potentially career-launching opportunity for developing New Brunswick performers, offering regional and national exposure for these artists, as well as the 700 other artists across Canada that have benefitted from the Rising Star Program since its launch in 1998.
"Supporting emerging young artists, we feel, is an important part of our role here at CBC New Brunswick," says CBC Program Manager for New Brunswick, Mary-Pat Schutta. "We introduced online voting to the Rising Star competition last year, and were really pleased with the results. Being able to introduce young NB talent to an even wider audience through cbc.ca/nb has been our goal. We're excited about the opportunities the additional exposure provides to the artists."
You can visit www.cbc.ca to read up on this year's finalists, watch videos of each performing, and vote for your favourite artist to have your say in who will be this year's Galaxie Rising Star.
