The British Council held a competition for 'International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year' featuring aspiring music people from ten different countries, Argentina, Estonia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Poland and Venzuela, who having competed successfully in their own country came to the UK last summer for the final.There they had the opportunity to meet a cross-section of the UK music industry,hear some music,but most importantly compete for the prize. The winner had to " be someone who will be able to develop a mutually beneficial culture of both personal and professional engagement, collaboration, and partnership with the UK, and more broadly put the wider international dialogue of IYMEY to work." The joint runners-up were Jesse Singh from India and Yoris Sebastian from Indonesia and the winner was Mohamed 'Momo' Merhari from Morocco the co-founder of "Boulevard des Jeunes Musiciens' the largest contemporary music festival in North Africa.
The range of music, aspiration and commitment that all the candidates brought to the UK was exceptional.The communication and support for each other that they developed during their trip to the UK was a joy to see.Their attitude would have been impressive in any context,but given the challenging economic and social circumstances that they experience in building their music careers you can't help feeling that perhaps the best training we could offer young music entrepreneurs in the UK might be an exchange visit with their international counterparts, where they can share that experience, and test their own resourcefulness and passion against that background.
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