Komodo - (I Just) Died In Your Arms

 KOMODO is a producer trio from the Polish Lesser Poland province. They became widely popular thanks to their first club interpretation of a very well-know song by Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins. Their remake of “Blue Suede Shoes” has had over 1 million views on Youtube. The real revolution though started when they premiered “(I Just) Died In Your Arms”. This cult hit of the British band Cutting Crew in a new dance version created by Komodo was undeniably one of the greatest hits of 2018.

Era - 7 Seconds

Era acrónimo de Eminential Rhythm of the Ancestors, estilizado como eRa,  es un proyecto musical del compositor francés Eric Lévi, que mezcla cantos gregorianos con ritmos modernos como el rock, el pop y el dance, clasificado dentro de la música New Age Era mezcla cantos gregorianos y ocasionalmente músicas del mundo con arreglos electrónicos y pop-rock contemporáneos. Es una reminiscencia de proyectos musicales de la nueva era como Enigma, Gregorian y Deep Forest. Las letras están escritas en latín e inglés, y algunas se basan en las creencias de los cátaros ​La letra de algunas canciones incluye estrofas escritas en un idioma imaginario inspirado en el latín, pero sin significado.

 

Sweet Mikey C - Susie Q

 I will tell you that Sweet Mikey C is not my real name. As if you couldn't figure that out by yourself. Because Tom Petty's guitar player, Mike Campbell, and I have the same name, I decided to use Sweet Mikey C.

My family moved from Phoenix to Odessa, Texas in November, 1956, the middle of my third grade year. We pulled into Furr's Supermarket, which had a small room for kids that featured a TV. The Teen Kings were on. Their singer was a young cat named Roy Orbison. If my memory serves me correctly, the show was called the Hub Jamboree, sponsored by Pioneer Furniture, and it was Saturday. If it does not serve me correctly, I'm sure someone from West Texas will let me know. But, heck, boys, I was only in the third grade.

Before leaving Phoenix, I was already hooked on Elvis. And that's Scotty Moore's fault. The sound of his guitar and how he played it were very addicting to a youngster. Then came Buddy Holly. Another early influence was Dean Martin. In those days I wanted to look like Elvis, sound like Roy Orbison, and be as cool as Dean Martin. Still do. Oh, well.

Years later I wanted to make a record with those early sounds, mixed in with some oldies and some original tunes. And then drummer Shannon Ford introduced me to Danny Gatton. I had never heard of Danny, but while listening to a live recording of their band, I knew he was the one I wanted to play on this record.

First To Eleven - Wanted Dead Or Alive

 First To Eleven are an American band made up of Audra Miller, Matt Yost, Ryan Krysiak, and Sam Gilman whose YouTube channel sees them play covers of existing songs. The band formed in 2009 under the name M4 when Ryan Krysiak, who was working as a guitar teacher, suggested a small group of his students who attended the same school form a band - even though, at the time, the members of the band's ages ranged from between eight and ten years old, and they didn't have a vocalist. A few years later, in 2015, the band were playing live at a gig where Audra Miller (born: July 11, 2001 [age 20]), who was just fourteen at the time, happened to be in attendance and afterwards she approached the band to ask if she could join the Rock School program, and as fate would have it the initial vocalist left soon afterwards and Audra was drafted in as the band's new vocalist. Once the lineup was finalised, the band headed to the studio, realising their first EP Out Of Time in 2016, with guitarist Ryan also taking charge of filming and editing the videos which were uploaded to the band's YouTube channel.

Ana Victoria - Billie Jean

Ana Victoria Boccadoro Miguel, (Los Ángeles, California; 8 de diciembre de 1983) conocida como Ana Victoria, es:

 una cantante, compositora, productora, bloguera y empresaria mexicana-estadounidense de ascendencia argentina. Es hija de los cantantes Amanda Miguel y Diego Verdaguer.​

En toda su carrera ha lanzado 4 álbumes de estudio y 15 sencillos, los cuales han sonado en más de 50 ciudades a nivel nacional. Más de 50,000 personas han acudido a sus conciertos, y sus videos han sido vistos más de 150 millones de veces.

Roberto López -CEO de Sony Music México- le propuso hacer un disco donde se viera su talento en vivo. La propuesta se consolidó en un proyecto con el propósito de que Ana Victoria mostrara su gran capacidad vocal, y fue precisamente la versión de “Yo no lloro por llorar” la inspiración para la selección del nuevo repertorio.

Con la colaboración del músico y compositor Alejandro Marcovich (Caifanes) y su padre Diego Verdaguer, Ana Victoria grabó en los estudios de Sony Music México un CD+DVD en vivo titulado Color Amor, con el cual rindió homenaje a grandes personajes de la música latina, como: Juan Gabriel, Marco Antonio Solís, Álvaro Carrillo, Julio Iglesias, Ricardo Montaner, Enanitos Verdes, José José, Sandro de América, Espinoza Paz, y dos temas en inglés, de Lenny Kravitz y Michael Jackson (en este último interpretando en la batería). Varios de los intérpretes o autores de estas canciones, han sido personajes muy cercanos en su vida personal. Este repertorio nunca antes había sido interpretado por una mujer. También incluyó como bonus track el tema “Mi buen corazón” de su madre Amanda Miguel.

A tan solo dos semanas del lanzamiento, Color Amor se colocó en el puesto #4 de ventas a nivel nacional y durante un año se logró mantener en los 100 discos más vendidos del país. En marzo de 2014, fue acreedora a un Disco de Oro por más de 30,000 copias vendidas, certificado por AMPROFON.

Su gira de conciertos, el Tour Color Amor, inició en septiembre de 2013 en el Teatro Diana de Guadalajara. Desde entonces, se ha presentado en importantes escenarios como el Palenque de León, la Feria de Zacatecas, el Complejo Cultural Universitario de Puebla, el Festival Internacional Cervantino Barroco de Chiapas, el Museo del Vino de Ensenada, la Feria de Sacramento, California, el House of Blues de Los Ángeles, y la Feria de San Marcos, en donde superó su propio récord de audiencia con más de 13,000 espectadores. Con el Tour Color Amor, Ana Victoria se ha presentado ante más de 50,000 personas en toda la República Mexicana y Estados Unidos.

 

 

Ahmir - I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

Ahmir is a group of four male R&B/pop singers who are based out of Boston, Massachusetts. The group is mainly known for their YouTube channel, with over one hundred million views, they are one of the most viewed R&B groups on YouTube. The band was originally named One Love, but changed to Ahmir for trademark reasons.

The band began their journey in 2002 in Boston as the name "One Luv" or simplified "1Luv". Before the bands' formation, Mr. Jones, the only member originally from Boston, was a Northeastern University graduate, who honed his craft by singing in church choirs. Eventually he networked with Big Mike, who is a New York City native, and a previous member of the respected "The Boys Choir in Harlem", and continued his career at Boston University, majoring in music.  They Both decided to put together a male R&B vocal group that not only showcase talent, but a brotherhood. So they set out a search to build the band. KC, who was raised in Rochester New York, had just relocated to Boston in hopes of chasing his dream after taking risks with no formal vocal training other than singing in church choirs and had less financial support and found interest in auditioning for the group after viewing a flyer looking for band mates. Sing-Sing, a Philadelphia native, had passion for music and developed his skill from the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, which led his path to attend Berklee College of Music where he eventually was approached to become the final addition into the band.

One Luv's popularity rose by creating a buzz performing at various local open-mics and venues across the city. They persisted on getting a record deal from major labels and set out on quest to serenade many record labels, but however it became hard to secure a deal.

A few years later, they were discovered by Michael Cheung, who then became their manager and soon released their first hit single in 2006 titled "Welcome To My Party" from their album The Gift under the new stage name "Ahmir". The song peaked at #82 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. And also charted at #19 on the R&B Singles of the Year. Their breakout single from the album "The Wedding Song" went viral over the internet, and was the most requested song to perform at wedding. "The Gift" won an Urban Music Award in New England, USA for Best Album as well the group received another award for "Best R&B Group".

After gaining some notable attention The group performed as contestants on the second season of NBC's America's Got Talent.,^[9][10] with celebrity judge Sharon Osbourne considering them as a "Class Act"

In 2008, Ahmir competed on BET's 106 & Park's Wild-out Wednesdays and became the 1st place winners. Shortly after, the band started to generate more buzz by creating visual cover to the music industries most notable songs on YouTube which gained them the label as the "Most popular R&B Group on YouTube" as they were the most watched and subscribed during that time. They also became popular overseas, in particular most successful in Japan.

In the forthcoming years after, Ahmir has used their platforms to be philanthropists, helping communities and participating in benefit concerts and charities around the world and the through the internet.

In 2010, After years of striving to find a home for a record label, They were signed to Robbins Entertainment RED/Sony Music and a few years later they released the single "WAR" which aired on the Top 40 spot across the nation from various radio stations. In 2013, the group made an appearance and performed "WAR" on the Jimmy Fallon show

Ahmir was the winner on the YouTube music show Best Cover Ever on the episode featuring Demi Lovato. The group was awarded with a special performance of "Stone Cold" with Demi Lovato.

In 2017, Ahmir released their commercially self titled album, Ahmir. With the lead single "My Love", which gained airplay on The Music Choice Network as well as a music video for the song which played in rotation on BET Soul.

With all the growing success of the gentlemen quartet, Ahmir made an announcement on their YouTube channel on May 17, 2018, that Sing Sing would be moving on from the band as he will continue to work on other projects, He states:

"In life, there are several points where you look at where you are and stop to evaluate and try to figure out where you've been and where you wanna go. And after some evaluation, I've enjoyed being a member of the group forever...and I figured at this time I would like to spend a little time investing in myself as an artist, and make no mistake these are my guys, these are my brothers in harmony. We made so many stories, so many memories, so much music and we're glad that you've all [the fans] been part of that. Thank you all for everything. The love and support is always going to be there, and this is by no means anything that is so sad because we're all continuing to make some wonderful music from this point, and we just wanted to take some time to share that"

The group added to say, they are happy to have had 'Sing' as a member and wish him the best in his new endeavors and will be rooting for him. They also stated that the group has not disbanded, it will continue as a Trio, or possibly seek a new member in the future and would hope the fans will continue to support.

Prior to Sing-Sing's departure, he independently released an Alternative-Rock/R&B solo single titled "Don't Ever" under his new alias named "SING" The music video gained over 5,000 views.in over a month.

Mr. Jones took more of a new lyrical approach during and after the break of Ahmir. Influenced by hip-hop, he began showcasing his ability to rhyme with Rap music. Releasing 2 music videos for singles on various online streaming platforms ("Demolition Man" & "Twilight Zone - Rest In Power" ), along with displaying his lyrical freestyle by participating on a YouTube freestyle challenge produced by Abstract Minor. During the run of the band, Mr. Jones added his full songwriting credits on 8 tracks out of 17 on their 2017 self-titled album. He then later collaborated his skills and wrote for New Edition/BBD member Mike Bivins' Sporty Rich Enterprises/Apparel upcoming new album titled Stay Fly and sung the comedic jingle for the Sporty Rich National 'Bangled' Anthem.

KC, ventured into runway and print modeling, and is rooted into physical fitness as well as Mr. Jones, with whom in the past as a group shared fitness challenges over the internet and v-log their progress.

 

Cindy Alter · Thabonage - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Even though Cindy Alter was born to a musical family in Johannesburg, South Africa, she claims that "music chose her". She picked up a guitar at age 10, wrote her first song at 15 then joined a heavy-rock, cover-band, playing everything from Zeppelin to Grand Funk.

She spent a few years touring South Africa, opening for various big-name acts, until 1977 when she auditioned for an all-girl band and was suddenly catapulted into the world of pop-stardom, constant touring and recording, playing huge arena 's and concert halls in Europe and Africa, as she spearheaded the band "Clout", selling over ten million albums worldwide, earning gold records, Sarie Awards (South Africa's Grammy equivalent), and charting at #1 across Europe and Africa, # 2 in U.K., and entering the U.S. Billboard top 100 with their hit single (a cover of the Righteous Brothers song), "Substitute"

"Clout" toured Europe for four years, sharing stages with the top recording artists of the time, The Police, Thin Lizzy, Supertramp, Dire Straights, Blondie, Gloria Gaynor and the Village People, to name a few. Cindy had been writing songs for a few years, and two of these were recorded by Clout, but her efforts to contribute more were met with indifference, which marked the beginning of the band’s long struggle to redeem royalties from their management & record company. The pressures finally took their toll and after four monumental years, "Clout" disbanded.

Cindy performed acoustically and with her band making waves in songwriter circles in Los Angeles, and in Nashville. Her appearance at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the "Sings Like Hell" series was a powerful introduction to an audience who support the likes of John Hiatt, Peter Case, Richard Thomson, Nickel Creek, & Gillian Welch, and Santa Barbara newspaper,"The Independent", called her "red-hot"!

Cindy has also appeared alongside such diverse artists as Kenny Loggins, Olivia Newton-John, Clint Black, Glen Phillips, Dave Mason, Sophie B. Hawkins, Flock of Seagulls & Dishwalla, and has co-written with other songwriters, including Trevor Rabin.