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Previous winners include Birdy!

East Sussex Music Competitions, such as Open Mic UK, have discovered the best unsigned music in Brighton as unsigned singers took to the stage at Open Mic UK last weekend. The Sussex music competition has provided industry feedback for the best singers in the region.

Successful auditionees in Brighton performed at The Hove Centre in front of a large crowd and the Open Mic UK industry experts. Judges included vocal coaches, music journalists and A&R managers. The singing competition feedback on selected acts can be seen below.

The judges for the Brighton unsigned musicians contest were Founder of Sussex Vocal Academy Lucinda Bristow, Radio presenter and ex Virgin Music Tino Leonard, Lois Teague from Metway Studios, Dennis McKenzie from Urban Circle Productions, and Chris Grayston head of Future Music.

Find industry feedback below. Please be aware views expressed by judges are opinions and subjective to that particular judging panel. These views in no way reflect the views of Open Mic UK, and are published with a view to being beneficial to the performing acts. Please take the feedback on board with a view to helping in the future.

East Sussex Music Competitions- Feedback for 23 and over category

Troy Peverall – Lovely sound but lacked a hook to the song to go away with, little sloppy towards the end with the playing. Good interaction with the audience.

Daryl Markham – This guy is good but over pushed the vocal today with an erratic performance. Connected better with the music last time he performed at the Hove. Song was good but bit repetitive find the balance for the use of the hook.

Dreyton Ffrench – Good song and beats needs to be more convincing with the performance which was lacklustre. Glasses stopped from him from engaging with his audience which was highlighted by the lack of performance.

PhatBones – Really good catchy song, needed to act it out more on stage made performance repetitive. Over use of the hook line.

Alice Frankham – Good emotion be careful not to push the vocal and force it.

Diana Raymond – Can feel the emotion and energy from the song remember to not leave the audience out of the connection and engage from the start.

Kerrie Tyler – Original song was performed better than the cover, original could have been more interesting needed to have better dynamics to achieve this.

Jo Larcombe – Beautiful guitar playing and lovely tone. Possibly would have considered changing the dynamics to drive the song towards the end?

Ce Ce – Where’s the cover last out half of your Judges marks? Good original on the whole clashed a bit with the backing vocals on the backing track. Remember to command the stage more and work on mic control.

James Lattimer – Played well always a bit messy changing over guitars. Cover was dull, it’s a boring song at the best of times, would have selected another cover.

Steve Brook – It’s a well put together song but sounds dated, would suggest focus on writing perhaps with a modern edge.

Elijah MC – This song is good! The main thing with Elijah is work on the publicity and promotion off stage to capitalise on his talent. It was much slicker than the audition performance and nice he explained how and what he was going to do in building the track.

Gwendolen Elias – Wasn’t a great song choice but Gwen sang it really well with passion work on the dynamics more and connection with the audience.

View From Here – Lovely choice of cover contemporary and now with their own twist on it doing it acoustically just how we like it! Need more versatility in the performance.

Just The Two Of Us – Polished with lovely tone but was like a bit of a taste of a cruise ship rather than being original and different.

Roy Sudan – Very accomplished guitar playing, very messy setting up for the second track would have worked on that a bit to make more polished. But what a song! Really performed with passion with a very enjoyable performance.

Pete Brame – Performance was a little odd, decent original song perhaps tone the performance down a little.

Strappa – Best urban act of the day! This guy is a contender!! The look, the image the song!!

JC – What an extreme diverse range of acts in this show? Vocal was forced, performance came over aggressive and cover dated would look to be more individual.

Si McLean – Clearly talented but nerves affected the performance, more performance and more conviction to the performance required.

Sian-Lee – Really enjoyed the performance, really good dynamics and the dancers were great!

2 Deep – Got stronger as the performance went on, complimented each other well.

The guest act for the day was Flow Dem, who treated the crowds to brilliant performances of her upbeat and original music.

East Sussex Music Competitions, Enter Now!

All successful acts at the Brighton Regional Finals will now be performing in the live Area Final Showcase on 27^th November in Portsmouth Come along to see the best unsigned talent!

All acts are competing to make it to the Grand Final on January 21^st at Live Fest, London’s biggest indoor festival!

Don’t miss your chance to perform in front on industry professionals! You can enter Open Mic UK now!