Doritos Competition: Are you the next big thing in SA music?

Hola, all you would-be music stars out there – listen up! The Doritos Be Heard competition is coming at you this month in a quest to find the hottest young musos on the block, as part of a global search for new music.

Whether strings, skins, keys or wind instruments are your thing, if you think you are destined to become the next big thing on the music scene, you could soon be walking off with a cool R200 000 if you’re crowned top of the pops, or the just-as-cool R100 000 runner-up prize.

From 5 to 30 October 2009, the search is on for South Africa’s hottest young instrumentalists – from budding drummers and keyboardists to guitar wizards and players of traditional instruments, playing in a style or genre of your choice.

This forms the local leg of an international talent search by Doritos that spans South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the South African winner will have the chance to perform to a live online audience across the globe as part of his or her prize.

All you need to do to enter is record a short music performance video of no longer than five minutes on your phone or camera, and upload it onto the internet via www.doritosbeheard.co.za.

Don’t forget to include a brief introduction to yourself or your band, and to ensure the recording is of good visual and sound quality. Note that this competition is not open to singers, but only those who play an instrument.

Only one entry will be accepted per entrant. During the search phase, members of the public will be able to log onto the two sites and rate the videos.

The Doritos Be Heard roadshow will also be hitting a campus near you soon, travelling around the country to five universities as well as to several nightclubs. The Doritos crew will be filming would-be superstars performing their music before uploading them as competition entries.

At the end of October, a panel of judges will listen to all the entries in order to select the top 40 finalists to go through to the next round – the voting phase. This is where things really start heating up!

Between 5 and 27 November 2009, music fans can register on www.doritosbeheard.co.za and www.beheard.mobi, and then rate and vote for their favourite music performances. During both the search and the voting phases, those who hop online to root for their favourites stand in line to win great weekly cash prizes as well as funky iPhones.

This phase of the competition will be decided purely by public vote – placing the power firmly in your hands. Winners will be selected from the voting entries received, with the video clip that receives the highest number of valid votes walking off with R200 000 and a shot at becoming SA’s next superstar. The runner-up will pocket R100 000.

The competition will culminate in a spectacular New Year’s Eve party, with the South African winner taking part in a virtual concert alongside all the other winners from Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Spain, Turkey, Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, China, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Greece, India and Thailand. This will be the perfect opportunity for the winning South African instrumentalist or band to showcase their skills to a global audience, via live online streaming.

So, get practising and get filming – who knows, you could be SA’s next big music export! Visit www.doritosbeheard.co.za or www.beheard.mobi for more details.

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Press Release

- Sergio Pereira
sergio@musicreview.co.za