About the challenges

JJ Band (Poland)

The idea

As a member organisation of the American Blues Foundation, the Baltic Blues association puts on two qualifying festivals for the IBC finals in Memphis once a year in Eutin, which are combined together.

One is for German artists only ("German Blues Challenge" – GBC), the other for participants from the Baltic countries ("Baltic Blues Challenge" - BBC).

The GBC and BBC will each carry two categories:

  1. Band - any act with three to five musicians
  2. Solo/Duo - any act with one or two musicians

The winners in both categories of both competitions are qualified for the final competition (IBC) in Memphis, TN. The Baltic Blues association will pay for the costs.

Criteria

  1. Blues musicians from Germany and the whole Baltic region who have not been nominated for the "Blues Music Awards" or it's predecessor, the "Handy Awards", of the Blues Foundation, USA, can take part
  2. GBC: Participants from Germany were pre-nominated by a special jury. The final participants in Eutin will be voted by the readers of German Blues magazine "BluesNews".
    BBC: Participating nations can be: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Germany. The participants of each country were nominated/voted by each country's Blues magazine. If there is none, the Baltic Blues e.V. can invite directly.

The competition in Eutin

The musicians will perform live in the "Schlossterrassen" hall on two consecutive days (Friday GBC/Saturday BBC) at the end of October/beginning of November of a given year.

Each participant will play a maximum of ca. 20 minutes. A chosen jury (i.e. blues journalists, blues event organisers, blues musicians) from different Baltic countries and an audience vote will decide the winners.

The following criteria should be crucial:

  1. Blues related performance
  2. original performance (i.e. own composition, individuality when performing songs from other artists)
  3. talent and skill with instrument and song
  4. presence on stage (complete performance)

Points will be deducted by the jury for not complying by the formal rules, i.e. playing longer than the allowed time. The details of the formal rules will be fixed in following of the IBC rules of the Blues Foundation, USA. All contestants will be informed about the rules in advance.

The final results of GBC and BBC will be announced at the end of the event upon detemining the score of the voting.

The competition in Memphis

The Latvian Blues Band at Chill Club, Memphis, USA

The best performers of both contests (GBC and BBC) in both categories will enter the IBC finals in Memphis, TN, USA the following January/February at the expense of the Baltic Blues e.V. directly (without further qualifying). This includes appearances in Blues bars in the Beale Street, Memphis, as well as appearances at the International Blues Festival in Eutin in May of the following year.

These rules have  been certified recently by the Blues Foundation.

For further details see the rules (PDF, 120 KB) of the German/Baltic Blues challenge.