R.A.E wins Glastonbury's Emerging Talent Competition 2020

Glastonbury have announced R.A.E as the winner of this year’s Emerging Talent Competition.

The annual contest offers rising acts the chance to win a slot on one of the festival’s main stages, as well as a £5000 Talent Development prize from the PRS Foundation.

Despite their 2020 event being cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, Glasto organisers decided to go ahead with the competition as planned.

Over the course of this evening (June 17), the top three acts from the previously-announced eight finalists were unveiled on the official Glastonbury Twitter account. You can see the posts below.

West London singer-songwriter Matilda Mann and Newscastle’s AJIMAL took third and second place respectively, each securing a slot at Glastonbury 2021 and £2,500 from PRS.

Taking the top prize was south-east London artist R.A.E, “who wowed the judges with her vibrant hip-hop & R&B!” In response, she wrote: “YOU’RE JOKINGG!! OMDSS THANK YOU WOW!!”

Sharing the news on Instagram, Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis said that she was “absolutely thrilled” about R.A.E’s win, adding: “I really can’t wait to see her at next year’s Glastonbury!”

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

Speaking previously about this year’s competition, Eavis explained: “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.”

Meanwhile, the BBC iPlayer is set to launch a pop-up Glastonbury channel next weekend in lieu of the shelved 50th-anniversary event. Full classic sets from the likes of Oasis, Adele, David Bowie and Beyoncé will be available to watch on-demand.