The voting buttons are now live for the CBC Searchlight contest.
The annual music showcase allows Canada to vote online for their favourite unsung singers and instrumentalists. Hundreds of acts from all corners of Canada put forth a song and the public clicks the best of them forward.
Prince George is well represented, and northern B.C. has perhaps its strongest showing in Searchlight history.
This city has four resident performers offered on the ballot. They are:
The Chevys with their single Carol;
Genevieve Jaide with her song The Lady On The Tracks;
Redwhyn with their tune You And I;
William Kuklis with his song Standing Strong.
In addition to those local acts, the region also has 15 confirmed groups and soloists vying for the prizes. They are:
Colleymount Road from Francois Lake with Dark Smoky Eyes;
The Racket from Smithers with Further Down The Road;
Dale Stephens from McBride with Black Car;
Ze Gielens from Kitimat with Take Me;
Scarlet Sway from Dawson Creek with Room Of Mirrors;
Pirate and the Bloody Bohemian from Bella Coola with There She Goes;
Louvois from Peace-country with Swim To Survive;
Euangelion from Burns Lake with Atonement;
Keith Cummings from Telkwa with Mascarade;
Thee Night Bamm from Telkwa with Portal;
Kyle Burrows from Dawson Creek with Over The World;
The Mechanical Botanicals from Tumbler Ridge with The Road;
Adam Winn from Fort St. John with Burnout;
Parker Threlkeld from Vanderhoof with Overdose On Overdrive;
Katy Nicol from Horsefly with You Feel Like Home.
Further to all these, there are local musicians living in other parts of Canada who also got entered in the competition. Some of those former residents include:
Daniel Cook with Take Me As I Am entered out of Victoria;
Belcarra (featuring Jaron Chidiac) with Jonna entered out of Vancouver;
Niska Napoleon with On My Way Again entered out of Vancouver;
Fort Fraser's Selina B with Let The Music entered out of Edmonton.
There are more than 2,000 acts in the running. Each one is listed with a photo and name bar that acts as a button to click for hearing the song. A small bio accompanies each entry, and each one also has a "Vote" box to click on if you wish to give them your support.
On the CBC Searchlight website, these artists are searchable by name, or you can look them up in the region in which they are entered. You can vote for each artist once per day until Feb. 28 but you can vote for more than one per day.
The voting will advance 50 of the artists, and a panel of judges will advance another 50. Those will form the competitors for Round 2 which again allows for public voting from March 1-7.
Afterwards, a shortlist will be elected and those finalists will be judged by a panel of music industry experts to determine the winners of the prize packages.
