On Thursday April 24, 2014, aspiring artists aged 19 or under from across the West Midlands will assemble at Birmingham’s prestigious LG Arena for OMG Live. This will be a celebration of musical talent in the area, and a chance for young musicians to perform on a stage that has recently played host to some of the biggest names in the world. The event organisers, EMO Ltd., have asked each local authority’s music hub to select an up and coming local act worthy of the honour of performing at OMG Live.

The search is on to find the artist who will represent Herefordshire at the event, and who could be the next in the line of successful musical exports from the county following on from Mott The Hoople, The Pretenders and, more recently, Ellie Goulding.

Cliff Woollard, Head of Herefordshire Music Service, said: “This is a great opportunity to raise the profile of popular music-making by Herefordshire teenagers; together with the chance for one artist/band to perform at the LG Arena alongside current popular music artists, this is a chance in a lifetime!”

The process opened on Wednesday November 6, and prospective performers can enter a video of themselves performing a song (an original or a cover), upload it to YouTube and submit the link via The Music Pool web site (www.musicpool.org.uk). Online submissions close on Friday December 20 at 5pm, and all performers must be 19 or under on the date of OMG Live (April 24 2014) to be eligible. Once all the videos have been submitted, the performances will be opened to a public vote, and the top two artists from the vote along with 4-6 others selected by a panel of local professionals will be invited to an OMG Herefordshire live showdown at The Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Hereford on Sunday February 2, 2014, where the panel will select the act who will go on to Birmingham.

As well as the performance itself, OMG Live will include a number of masterclass sessions for all the participating artists, led by professional musicians, so there will be opportunities for them to hone their skills, gain valuable tips and potentially make useful contacts for the future.

The act that goes on to Birmingham will not necessarily be the one with the glossiest video submission or the highest number of public votes – it will be the act with the highest standard of performance.

------------------------------------

For more details on entering, visit: www.musicpool.org.uk/omgherefordshire