Not too long now until the 19th edition of the New Wave competition, which is making its big return after it was cancelled last year.
This year Australia’s own Alfie Arcuri will be competing representing Australia. The former The Voice Australia winner, ‘Eurovision - Australia Decides 2019’ artist and Eurovision 2020 songwriter will compete alongside nine other new up-and-coming artists.
You don’t know much about New Wave? Or it’s the first time you’re hearing about it? Then you must have a lot of questions!
We at Aussievision have done a run through on what this competition is about.
So, what exactly is New Wave?
New Wave in an international music competition of artists from around the world giving up-and-coming performers a platform for global recognition.
The six day music festival and competition was set up in 2002 by Russian composer Igor Krutoy, Latvian pianist and composer Raimonds Pauls and later enhanced by the Russian superstar Alla Pugacheva.
Although performers from all over the world compete, it does tend to skew to more Eastern European and ex-Soviet states.
Many Eurovision artists have won New Wave before heading to the big Eurovision stage, they include Natalia Gordienko, Jamala, Damir Kedžo, DoReDos with many many other Eurovision artists having competed in New Wave.
The competition also features many guest performances. In the past guest performers have included Dima Bilan, Philipp Kirkorov, Verka Seduchka and Sergey just to name a few.
How does the competition work?
New Wave is different from other music competition as it is not just based solely on singing or songwriting. In fact the artists competing have to showcase their artistry in themed evenings.
A jury then scores the competitors from 8 to 11 points on the basis of their favourite performance and the artists potential. The artist with the most points over the competing evenings goes one to be the next New Wave winner.
The last evening of the competition is the most important part of the event, artists showcase an original song, this is where the competing artists can give themselves huge exposure and global appeal.
Why is Australia competing?
New Wave is open to artists from all over the world. Many nations from the Asia Pacific region have competed in the past including China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
This year will be the first time an artist from Australia has competed.
Who is representing Australia?
As we mentioned earlier Alfie Arcuri will be competing representing Australia.
Alfie won the fifth season of The Voice Australia in 2016 and went on to be signed with Universal Music Australia. His debut album ‘Zenith’ reached the No.5 spot on the ARIA Album chart in Australia in 2016.
The Sydney based artist competed in the first edition of ‘Eurovision - Australia Decides' in 2019. He finished in 5th place with his song 'To Myself'.
Alfie then went on to compete at another major European song festival 'The Golden Stag' in Romania where he performed that song and a local song 'Acasă' where he won best interpretation of a Romanian song.
In 2020 his song 'Running' was selected to be the Cypriot entry at Eurovision performed by Sandro Nicolas. Unfortunately due to the cancellation of Eurovision he was unable to see it come to life on stage in Rotterdam.
Who else will be competing?
Nine other acts will join Alfie on the New Wave stage. Other notable artist includes Jorge Gonzalez who participated in Spain’s Eurovision 2014 national final ‘Mira quién va a Eurovisión’.
Below is a full list of the the acts competing this year:
Saro Gevorgyan (Armenia)
Alfie Arcuri (Australia)
CHEICHAI Group (Belarus)
Denitsa Karaslavova (Bulgaria)
Natia Rigvava (Georgia)
Mezzo (Kazakhstan)*
Jorge Gonzalez (Spain)
Fabio Curto (Italy)
GRINKEVICH Group (Russia)
Maxim Subachev (Russia)
Sevil (Russia)
*late addition to the line-up
What can we expect from New Wave 2021?
Eurovision fans are in for a treat!
Many Eurovision stars are set to make guest appearances and even perform with Natalia Gordienko, Philipp Kirkorov, Sergey Lazarev, Polina Gagarina, LOBODA, Ani Lorak, Dima Bilan and Alexey Vorobyov to feature during different evenings.
In special homage to Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan, this years competition will see an evening, August 20, completely dedicated to the work of Dima Bilan.
Where will it be held?
New Wave 2021 will take place in Sochi, Russia at the New Wave Hall.
From 2002 to 2014 New Wave took place in the coastal city of Jūrmala in Latvia. In 2015 it found a new home in Sochi, Russia. The main reason for the move that in 2014 Russian artists were denied entry into Latvia because of their voiced support for Russia's annexation of Crimea.
When will it be held?
This year New Wave will run from 19 to 25 August.
There are three days of competition with many guest performances.
19 August - Competition opening 20 August - Dima Bilan's creative evening "39.8"
21 August - Part 1: Creative evening by Alexander Rosenbaum / Part 2: First day of competition
22 August - Part 1: Concert of the jury members / Part 2: Second day of competition
23 August - Anniversary evening of Nikolai Baskov
24 August - Premier's Day / Third day of competition
25 August - Competition closing