The HEMI Music Awards (HMA) 2022 have reached the finish line and the art-rockers from Romania, Zimbru, are the big winners!

The announcement of the HMA 2022 winner took place at PIN Music Conference on 25 November at HEMI Dinner in MKC (Youth Cultural Center) where Zimbru received the “cup” and were the first act to open the Showcase evening at the Dancing Hall ’25 May’ in MKC .

Zimbru is an indie / art-rock band from Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Their sound can be described as a wild mix of raspy synthesizers, angular guitar riffs, and lively percussion all topped off by stories of dancing, lost pets, real love, and nostalgia for never experienced past decades.   

After a fruitful year of collaboration through 32 mentoring sessions, networking events, 9 online workshops, and live performances at 9 leading European Conferences, Showcase and Festivals such as MENT, Tallinn Music Week, Athens Music Week, EXIT, Mastering The Music Business, Reconnect, Budapest Showcase Hub, Tak Brzmi Miasto and PIN Music Conference, Zimbru are getting ready to perform at the Eurosonic Festival (ESNS) on January 2023! 

On top of that they are also honored with a total prize value of € 5,000. The nature of the HMA Prize affirms a shared commitment to helping emerging artists to break through in Europe and beyond.

The annual awards are designed to accelerate the international careers of upcoming European acts through a training program, networking events and live touring in leading showcase festivals around Europe.

Each year, 27 outstanding nominated artists from 9 European countries from Central and Southeastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia) are eligible for HEMI Music Awards. All nominees in each phase as well as the award winner are selected by an independent international Jury of 27 members including Industry experts, festival organisers, promoters, export offices, venue managers and music journalists from the 9 countries participating in the Awards.

But HMA is not only for the winner. All nominees are offered the opportunity to attend training sessions to develop their skills as well as networking events to be prepared for an international career, while the 9 HMA finalists are on top of that offered access to HMA touring programme, a total prize value of € 2,000 per nominee. 

Moreover,  by getting nominated in HEMI Music Awards, artists increase their visibility and boost their bookings such as AΙΚΟ (CZ), Danai Nielsen (GR), KOIKOI (RS), Pantaloons (SI) and Vera Vice (EE) who are among HMA artists to perform at ESNS 2023!

Stay tuned! HMA 2023 Open Call is just around the corner!

We are thrilled to announce the 9 finalists for the HEMI Music Awards (HMA) 2022!

Coming from 9 countries of Central & Southeastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia), these 9 HMA 2022 artists will now have access to mentoring and training activities targeted towards developing their skills and competencies in communication and revenue streams, with the aim to help propel their international career!

Moreover, they will get access to HMA touring programme including collaborations with booking managers around Europe, networking activities in the 9 HEMI partner events as well as a total prize of 2,000 Euros per nominee!

We are proud to introduce 9 exceptional European artists from a wide musical range such as the dreamy tunes and the energetic performance of Aiko from the Czech Republic, the neo-psychedelic sounds and old-school melodies of the Greek rockers Whereswilder, the open-road anthems of the Estonians Holy Motors, the ancient shamanic voice blended with smooth electronica of the Hungarians Deva, the electronic style of Slovenians Pantaloons mixed with a hint of jazz, funk, breakbeat, dubstep, the indie style of the Polish Alfah Femmes who take their sound from art-pop to synth pop, the unique fusion jazz sound of the Macedonians Zulu 3.4, the wild mix of raspy synthesizers, angular guitar riffs, and lively percussion of the Romanians Zimbru and the unorthodox pop of the Serbians KOIKOI.

Discover all the beautiful and diverse sounds from our HEMIsphere here!

In this last workshop of HEMI Music Awards phase 1, the 27 nominees of CSEE had the chance to find out how the Music PR process works in Germany.  Sebastian Król, co-founder of Backseat music agency and Funklub platform gave to the nominees an overview featuring fields of media, insights of a campaign and tips on how to get in touch with Music PR agencies. 

Sebastian Król is 32 years old and lives in Hamburg. After graduating from the university of Lüneburg with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Król started working at the music agency popup-records. Six years later, in 2017, he founded the label and PR agency Backseat – together with his friend and partner Arne Thamer. Early 2021, he started Fanklub, a new platform for bands and fans which will launch in summer. Sebastian is also a musician himself, releasing music under the alias Karwendel, poetic indie folk in German language.

Backseat is a Hamburg-based music agency founded in 2017 by Sebastian Król and Arne Thamer. We develop individual PR campaigns for releases in the fields of indie, folk, pop and rock. We cover all media fields (radio / print / online / TV) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Currently we support the following bands: Ane Brun, Sticky Fingers, AVEC, Kristofer Åström, The Fratellis, Tiger Lou, John Paul White, Meadows, Hudson Taylor, Lauren Ruth Ward and many more.

In addition to PR activities, Backseat is also active as a label itself. Together with Soulfood & Believe Digital as distribution partner we can distribute our releases worldwide. ROBA Musikverlag supports us in publishing. So far the following bands have released their music on Backseat: Carnival Youth, BRTHR, The Bland, DI-RECT, Jonas Alaska, Of The Valley, Albert Luxus, Jo Goes Hunting, Penny Police, Phototaxis, I’m Not a Blonde, Native, Brett Newski, Echo Me, Grapell, Martin Baltser, Cub & Wolf, Big Fox, Native, SPARKLING, The Cool Quest & The Bad Tones.

Backseat is in charge of the music booking for the NORDEN Festival in Schleswig and the PR for the Rock For People Festival in the Czech Republic. Since 2020 Backseat cooperates with the Czech export office SoundCzech to connect the German and Czech music industry.

In 2021, Sebastian Król and Arne Thamer founded the Fanklub Music FKM GmbH, a new platform for bands and fans: fanklub.com

Fanklub is the new platform for bands and fans!
As a band, you can create your own Fanklub page in no time, free of charge and with no programming skills – as website and app. All basic information such as live dates and videos can be found by everyone free of charge. Fans can access exclusive content such as live streams, news, and raffles by joining your Fanklub, which starts at €1.99 per month. As an all-in-one solution, Fanklub combines the functions of a classic band website with the features of crowdfunding models. With Fanklub you will have a perfect fanbase management tool and will be able to generate a solid monthly income. Because 90% of the fan contributions are passed on to the band.