A million-dollar reason to be a rock star in China
Chinese pop and rock singers, bands and composers will have a chance to compete with peers from other Asian countries for awards worth more than $1 million, as Beijing becomes the host city in East Asia for the SUTASI Song and Talent Contest, one of the biggest music competitions in Asia.
SUTASI is searching for the hottest, unsigned contemporary talent in Asia. It is an ongoing annual event, including television broadcasts in three regions of Asia - South East Asia, South Asia and East Asia.
Three overall winners of the contest (the best band, best singer and best composer) will be awarded prizes, music production and promotion costs, and opportunities to work with some of the world's top songwriters and producers and star in their own music video for world-wide release, which are together worth more than $1 million.
Each of the three regions hosts four broadcast shows incorporating a song contest to discover Asia's best songwriters and a talent search to source the best solo performers or bands.
East Asia follows South East Asia after its successful search in September this year. Beijing will be the host city in East Asia for the first year. SUTASI is now accepting online applications from East Asia at www.sutasi.com.
Finalists for each region will be announced by a committee of established music professionals and the public via telephone voting. They will then go on to compete in the finals in October, where they will be judged by a new panel of music professionals, via public voting throughout Asia. Shows will include a number of guest performances from major international and Asian artists.
"This is an amazing opportunity for those with exceptional talent and the desire to use this talent to create a worldwide name for themselves," said Colleen Zulian, president of Australia-based Asia Sounds, which is a sponsor of SUTASI. "SUTASI is committed to sourcing Asia's best songwriters, singers and bands and we invite all to get involved."
Zulian said that SUTASI encourages musicians to sing in their own languages and to use their traditional instruments.
"What we are looking for is not copies of Western music, but a fusion of diverse traditional music with modern music," she said. "We hope to show the world the richness of Asian music through SUTASI."
Zulian said she didn't know that there was such a strong rock scene in Beijing before she came, and she is still learning about the music culture in China.
"The rock scene in China is not commonly known in the West, and we hope to change that. There are some really interesting sounds here that you don't hear anywhere else," Zulian said.
(China Daily 12/25/2007 page18)
