ANCHOR Nominees 2023

ANCHOR 2023 NOMINEES: BERQ, DAISY THE GREAT, HANNES, ICHIKO AOBA, PARIS PALOMA AND WATERBABY!

Few competitions encapsulate the search for the best new acts at Reeperbahn Festival like the ANCHOR - Reeperbahn Festival International Music Award. Representing the festival visitors, the ANCHOR Jury will mingle with the audience at the concerts of the six nominees (photo), one of whom will ulitmately be crowned competition winner on Saturday evening, 23 September, at the ANCHOR Award Show in the St. Pauli Theater.

This year, the ANCHOR Board packed with international music experts has picked six nominees to play for the ANCHOR on Thursday, 21 September, and Friday, 22 September, at Gruenspan:
Songwriter and poet Berq (GER), an name on everyone's lips currently with his EP "Rote Flaggen";
duo Daisy The Great (USA), whose skillful blend of indie pop and college rock has already produced catchy singles like "Record Player" and "I Don't Wanna Fall"; 
songwriter Hannes (SWE), proving a master at winning listeners' hearts with catchy, stripped-down songs like "Stockholmsvy";
multi-instrumentalist Ichiko Aoba (JPN), whose intricately detailed songs spanning pop culture and soundtrack take on epic forms and have been immortalised in her home country on nine already cult-status studio albums;
songwriter Paris Paloma (GBR), with pop-noir gems like "labour" skillfully and poetically negotiating topics like femininity, romance, art and big emotions;
and last but not least waterbaby (SWE), whose contemporary bedroom r'n'b and alternative pop produced her debut EP "Foam" on the renowned label SubPop.

One thing is already clear: the ANCHOR Jury, made up of songwriter, poet and director BANKS (USA), producer, songwriter, singer, actress, activist and entrepreneur Tayla Parx (USA), songwriter, singer and producer Katie Melua (GBR) and legendary producer and jury president Tony Visconti (USA) once again have no easy task deciding on this year's winner.