Invincible Media CEO Jordan Kensington is a man on a mission--to find the best musical talent the continent of Asia has to offer and to bring it to the world.
The way he plans to do this, is through a free international contest called "Asia's Next Superstar."
Starting in June, individual competitions will be held in South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, all leading up to a final face-off in London in October, where each of the seven countries included the contest will be represented by one finalist.
Like Us on Facebook
In a London-to-New York Skype interview with KpopStarz, Kensington revealed some exclusive details about the contest (such as the fact that starting Monday interested contestants can apply directly on the website AsiaNextSuperstar.com) and shared his thoughts on the early days of his quest for the top Asian talent.
"It's an exciting time for Asian talent because K-pop is becoming very big internationally," Kensington said.
"We think it's the right time to invest, because there's a wealth of amazing talent right now."
And the investment hasn't been minor. He estimates the budget of "Asia's Next Superstar" as being over $15 million.
A cost that is most likely a lot higher because all aspects of the contest-to enter or to vote on the winner-are completely free.
Kensington believes it was critical to keeping the contest open to everyone.
"There are loads of TV music competitions that charge to enter and charge to vote," he said. "But we're really trying to invest in finding talent so we thought it would be wrong to charge."
"We want to make sure it's a fair chance for all the people that want to enter," Kensington added.
It's that same fairness he hopes to extend to the final competition. In order for the contest to not turn into a popularity contest among the competing countries, all voters will pick the first and second choice of performers.
Starting as a magazine, over the course of the last 15 years Kensington has built Invincible Media into an advertising, media and events powerhouse with offices in six countries.
The winner of "Asia's Next Superstar" will have the full force of the company's resources.
Invincible is offering whomever comes in first a recording and management contract and an opportunity to perform at both the UK's 12th Annual Urban Music Awards and the 2014 International K-Pop Awards 2014.
And according to Kensington, whose list of personal contacts includes Def Jam founder Russell Simmons and "American Idol" creator Simon Cowell, that's not all.
"The winner gets an album mixed and released in the US and a music video produced in London, along with a collaboration with a major US and UK artist," he said.
Invincible Media, whose flagship office is based out of London, is no stranger to awards shows, one reason for the choice of performance venues for the winner.
The company has previously produced the National Reality Television Awards, the Urban Music Awards, British Music Week and the International Football Awards.
Before "Asia's Next Superstar," which will be broadcast across 15 European countries on the television station Sky Channel 191, there was "Britain's Next Urban Superstar."
Yet Kensington claims the scale of "Asia's Next Superstar" makes the two projects incomparable.
"The difference is in the UK we go to different cities," he said. "In 'Asia's Next Superstar' we're going to seven different countries and picking one act."
According to Million Sekarsari, the Indonesian native who is the events manager for Invincible Asia (the company producing the contest), this is an opportunity for Asian artists to show the world that they are number one.
"This is about proving Asia's talent; that we have the most talented musicians in the world," Sekarsari said. "Come on! We can prove it."
Kensington adds that it's also about introducing international audiences to musical acts and movements that they were previously unaware of.
"What we want to do is show a side of Asia's talent that is not what we've seen before," he said. "From indie bands in Indonesia to heavy metal in Japan, there's so many things happening in Asian music."
Starting Monday, Asian musical acts of all types from the seven countries mentioned can apply to be a contestant in "Asia's Next Superstar" at AsiaNextSuperstar.com. In the meantime, you can request an application by sending an email to:
southkorea@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from South Korea
china@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from China
japan@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from Japan
indonesia@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from Indonesia
malaysia@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from Malaysia
singapore@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from Singapore
philippines@asianextsuperstar.com if you're from the Philippines
Source : kpopstarz[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment