Glastonbury announces finalists for their Emerging Talent Competition 2020

Glastonbury have announced the finalists for this year’s Emerging Talent Competition, which will be going ahead despite the 2020 festival being cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Eight finalists have been selected from the previous longlist of 90 artists: Ajimal, Courting, Frankie Beetlestone, Hannie, Joshua Burnside, Kathleen Frances, Matilda Mann and R.A.E..

The finalists will now be whittled down to a final three, with Glastonbury’s usual team of live finals judges picking a winner and two runners-up.

The live finals, which usually take place at Pilton Working Men’s Club, won’t go ahead this year due to the current circumstances, so the winners will instead be chosen using the song and live video each act entered with.

An announcement on the winners will be made “soon”, and in the meantime you can hear a playlist featuring the eight finalists below.

The winners of the free-to-enter Emerging Talent Competition will be offered a slot on one of the main stages at Glastonbury 2021 and a £5000 Talent Development prize from the PRS Foundation, which will “help take their songwriting and performing to the next level”.

Speaking about this year’s competition, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said: “There were so many great acts on the longlist, and narrowing it down from 90 acts to 8 certainly wasn’t an easy task.

“But I’m really happy with the finalists we have, and I very much hope that people will take the time to check them all out.”

The annual new music competition has been pivotal in the rise of other recent past finalists, including the likes of Declan McKenna, Izzy Bizu, She Drew The Gun and Che Lingo.

The winner of the 2019 competition was singer-songwriter Marie White, who has since signed with Decca Records and Universal Music Publishing Group following her performance at Glastonbury’s acoustic tent in 2019.

Emily Eavis announced earlier this week that Glastonbury would soon be revealing details of their broadcast plans to mark what would have been Glastonbury 2020 weekend.