Nominees include Keke, Elis Noa and Sketches on Duality. Jury evaluation and award ceremony at the Waves Vienna Music Festival.

For the third consecutive year the music export prize “XA” will be awarded within the Waves Vienna Music Festival. The award is an initiative of Austrian Music Export, SKE Fonds, Radio FM4 and Waves Vienna. Seven nominees have the chance to win the award and will be judged during their performance at the festival. The winner will receive prize money of 3,500 euros and the assurance of Austrian Music Export, FM4 and Waves Vienna to support the Act in the following year – among other things by integrating it into partner festivals and showcases.

Seven nominees, five jury members and 26 Austrian Bands at Waves Vienna 2019

More than 100 Bands will perform at this year’s edition of Waves Vienna Festival of which nearly 30 are from Austria! Seven out of these national musical newcomers are nominated for the export award: the young rapper Keke, singer-songwriter Bernhard Eder, soul/hip hop singer Soia, trip hop newcomer Elis Noa, hip hop/spoken word/jazz quintet Sketches On Duality, “sky gazer“ Good Willson and dream pop duo Anger.

During the three festival days, the performances of the nominated bands will be judged by a jury of experts. The jury is formed by three international jury members: Oskar Strajn (Eurosonic Noorderslag), Andraz Kajzer (Ment Ljubljana), Gorjana Jordanovska (Password Productions, Pin Festival), as well as the local Jurors Susi Ondrusova (FM4) and Lea Spiegel (SAE). After all the votes have been cast, the prize will be presented to the winning band on the last day of the festival, Saturday, 28 September, at 10:30 pm at WUK.

A Springboard for Austrian Talent

The surf-rock trio Dives, which emerged as the winner of the 2nd XA Music Export Award in 2018, went on to became one of the “Focus Acts 2019”. An new album is due to be released in November 2019 and the band will also perform at this year´s Viva Sounds Festival in Sweden.