Designed for the evolving global traveler, Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ leading-edge Aloft® brand today announced the kick-off of the second Asia Pacific edition of Project Aloft Star amplified by MTV, strengthening the collaboration with MTV, the biggest and boldest global youth brand, for a second year-running. The music talent discovery competition aims to identify and support the hottest emerging music artists throughout China, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Starting today through July 20, 2015, unsigned bands and artists are invited to showcase their musical talent by uploading an original video showcasing their music to projectaloftstar.mtvasia.com for the chance to win the prestigious title and recognition as Project Aloft Star winner. Covering major Asia Pacific markets, the three contest clusters comprise of China, India, and a third cluster consisting of Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Shortlisted entries will have the opportunity to perform at the finals in late September in front of a panel of distinguished judges held in their respective clusters. One winner from each of the three contest clusters will emerge and all three winners will walk away with USD$10,000 and a chance to be featured on MTV.
Public Voting Contest
From July 23 to August 13 2015, the public can head toprojectaloftstar.mtvasia.com to vote for their favourite videos from a panel of curated entries posted online. Fans in each cluster who cast their votes will stand a chance to win cash prize or prizes worth up to US$1,000. Last year’s winning fans walked away with an all-expense paid trip to Seoul, South Korea, including two nights at the newly opened Aloft Seoul Gangnam.
Aloft Hotels Trailblazers As The Platform For Emerging Artists
In last year’s collaboration, Aloft Hotels and MTV successfully debuted the competition in Asia Pacific, receiving over 300 entries from rising music talent alongside more than 170,000 fan votes. Aloft Hotels and MTV continue to be the platform for emerging artists; with the inaugural Project Aloft Star Southeast Asia cluster winner, GTXperiment (previously known as Clinton and Ashley) from Malaysia performing at the grand opening party at Aloft Seoul Gangnam, South Korea. They are currently working on their debut album to be launched in August 2015.
Project Aloft Star’s first India winner, Natania Lalwani has continued her winning streak with a series of nominations including “Best Independent Song” by the Global Indian Music Academy Award earlier this year for her single “The Letter”. Since then, she has also won 3 Radio City Freedom Awards for Best Pop Artist (Jury’s choice), Best Pop Artist (People’s choice) and Best Young Indie Artist. This year, Lalwani is slated to release her EP titled “Gold”.
Project Aloft Star’s first winner from China, PandaBros were invited to compose and sing the theme song for a popular web sitcom and had the chance to record it with Xianzi, a Taiwan Golden Song Award nominee. They are currently working on their 2nd album to be released in Q3 2015. In June, they will be performing at the Strawberry Music Festival in Beijing.
While Project Aloft Star provides a platform for supporting emerging talent in music, Aloft Hotels through a soon-to-be announced partnership with Singapore-based online art platform, Art Loft Asia, will extend its support for emerging talent to local contemporary Asian artists. Project Aloft Star is the latest example of how the Aloft brand is committed to cutting-edge music programming, and leads the way as the platform for emerging talent. To attract the evolving global traveler who craves differentiated experiences, Aloft Hotels has continuously brought together live music acts from local and established talent through its Live at Aloft Hotels music program in its buzzing W XYZ bars.
Project Aloft Star is expected to launch in The Americas and across Europe later this summer. For the most up-to-date information, check out LiveAtAloftHotels.com.
