Lost in translation from Albanian? Silva
The BBC World Service has discovered the world's best young unsigned act. Say hello to 17-year old Armenian singer Silva, winner of the corporation's global talent search, called the Next Big Thing. This is good news for the landlocked country, whose musical stars hitherto have included duduk player Djivan Gasparyan and the (ironically named) Armenian Navy Band.
The good folk at the World Service listened to over 1,100 entries, before a panel of experts whittled them down to seven. These seven acts were flown into London on Wednesday for the as-live recording of the final (broadcast tonight) in the same Maida Vale studio that has witnessed performances from the Beatles, Beyonce and co.
Well, they weren't all flown in: two of the acts, Stefan Abingdon and the Skagz, were British. Jostling in the green room with them were the several glitter-faced members of MLK and the Dreamers from Omaha, Nebraska; Malawian rap duo NiC; Brazilian tyros Sweet Cherry Fury; Silva; and Mishkini, a Liberian refugee now living in Ghana, who until the mandarins from the Beeb called had neither birth certificate nor passport.
It was fun, although truth be told, the standard wasn't quite as high as anticipated. My favourites were MLK and the Dreamers, but that might just have been their goofy get-up. To these ears, Silva sounded a bit too much like the Britney Spears of five years ago; but clearly, the judges disagreed - they were Geoff Travis of Rough Trade records; Gary Powell, drummer with the Dirty Pretty Things; producer William Orbit; and (via a live video feed) the singer Angelique Kidjo.
Two points: firstly, only two British journalists were there, myself included, which seems a shame. Secondly, this wasn't "world music", as it's packaged for consumption in the UK. NiC, for example, rapped about their homies, and sounded as if they come from Compton. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I'm not entirely sure.
But it was certainly sweet to witness Silva in her moment of triumph; crying with happiness, she could barely speak (which made life easy for her translator, because while she sings in English, she doesn't speak the language). You can hear more on the World Service website.www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/thenextbigthing/
