Czeching 2015 – Third year as apostles of Czech music
The six-member jury composed of Czech music experts (promoters, label representatives, music publicists and experts, organizers of music series and festivals, heads of programmes at music clubs and music talent seekers) nominates six contemporary songs by Czech bands that are considered to have the best chance of making it abroad. During the Czeching live session, the jury members choose the winning song.
The nominated songs are also reviewed by 11 members of international jury consisting of music experts, mainly representatives of European radio stations. Our listeners also get the chance to support their favourite band on their journey to an international audience by casting their votes in the chart, Vote for Your Favourite Czech Song.
Czeching is a format that showcases what’s happening in the contemporary Czech music scene. It features a radio show, a competition between our most exciting new talents, offers a helping hand to all nominated artists and, last but not least, also serves as a calling card abroad for the Czech non-mainstream scene. We provide the winning project with the opportunity to release a professional recording, get introduced to the European on-air media and catapult the winner onto international stages. This year, we celebrate our third birthday and we are putting together a host of new additions.
- We have launched the project’s own website www.rozhlas.cz/czeching and SoundCloud profile to support our media and marketing activities.
- Unlike in the two previous editions when the winners were selected by Czech music experts, this time we want to complement our expert panel with international members.
- We will also voice our listeners’ opinions when we announce the official winner of the Vote For Your Favourite Czech Song survey, in which you will be able to vote for the nominated bands using our special app.
- The recording session of the winning band will be officially released by Czech Radio.
We will send the winner of this year’s edition to the Eurosonic Noorderslag festival, which takes place in mid-January 2016 in Groning in the Netherlands. The 2016 festival will heavily feature the Central and Eastern European music scene – so let’s rise to the challenge!
Czeching 2015 will go on air in September on Czech Radio’s Radio Wave and on Vltava – the station that targets fans of alternative music.
When will Czeching go on air this year?
On 2 September 2015 we will announce the jury, who will compare the Czech music scene with that of other European countries. Finally, we will announce this year’s nominations and launch our listener survey – Vote For Your Favourite Czech Song.
All six nominated songs will be presented on air on 7 October 2015. All jury members will award the individual song nominations with points. Based on the total score, we will announce the winner of Czeching 2015 and give them the opportunity to use Czech Radio’s recording studio to produce a professional music release.
On 4 November 2015 we will announce the winners of the listener survey, Vote For Your Favourite Czech Song.
On 2 December 2015, you will finally have the opportunity to listen to the entire EP recorded by the winner in Czech Radio’s studio.
On 12 February 2016, we will broadcast a two-hour selection of music from the best of Czeching 2015 accompanied by a report from the winner’s international gig.
International jury members:
- Tijs van Liemt, Netherlands, music scheduler on 3FM
- Christoph Lindemann, Germany, Head of music at BR PULS
- Lörinc Bubnó, Hungary, Radio Petőfi
- Stefan Trischler, Austria, host of weekly HipHop show “Tribe Vibes” on Radio FM4
- Bethan Elfyn, United Kingdom, BBC, based in Wales but hosting shows on BBC Radio One, and BBC 6 Music
- Marta Blumi Tripodi, Italy, editor and producer on Rai Radio2
- Laurent Marceau, Switzerland, EBU, manager of the Eurosonic platform
- Robert Meijerink, Netherlands, the main booker for Eurosonic Noorderslag, the annual showcase-platform and conference
- Hervé Riesen, France, Radio France, deputy director of International Affairs
- Jan Sneum, Denmark, DR P3 Live, former chairman of the EBU expert group Eurosonic
Czech jury members:
- Jana Grygarová, founder, editor and publisher of Full Moon music magazine. She organised concerts under the k.y.e.o. label and presented programmes for Radio 1 and StreetCulture.
- Karel Veselý, renowned independent music journalist
- Pavel Turek, music journalist, editor at Respekt weekly
- Marie Čtveráčková (“Mary C”), producer, presenter and cultural activist
- Petra Ludvíková, producer and music programmer
- Jiří Špičák, music editor on Radio Wave