BBC Introducing at Glastonbury 2016
Jason Carter
Head of BBC Introducing
This week BBC Introducing announced our line-up for Glastonbury 2016, with some real tough choices for us to make, especially with over 600,000 tracks uploaded to the BBC Introducing website and more than 160,000 artists registered.
BBC Introducing provides a network dedicated to supporting the best emerging talent from across the UK through our BBC Introducing local radio shows, and a platform to propel them onto the national stage through broadcasts on Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, 6 Music, the Asian Network and Radio 3.
At last count, over 50 acts that have graced our festival stages have signed major record label deals, and with Catfish and the Bottlemen’s album going straight in at No 1 this week, it gives us the 9th artist championed by BBC Introducing to have achieved number 1 album status – and to crown it all, set against 30 Brit award nominations for Introducing alumni.
Of course for decades the BBC has championed new music across our specialist radio shows, but their once was a time when a dedicated platform for the very newest of talent did not exist at the BBC, no place where new artists at the very start of their journey could get music to us direct from their home or rehearsal studio, no dedicated new music stages at the major UK festivals and no slots on BBC playlists.
Until Glastonbury 2007.
That was the year, the month, the stage, the moment that BBC Introducing began.
Jake Bugg on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2011
We all start somewhere and much like the artists who stepped foot on those stages for first time, Introducing also started from humble beginnings.
From that one stage at Glastonbury with coverage on one radio station, Radio 1, to now having major stages across the UK at Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, Latitude, Radio 1 ‘s Big Weekend as well as stages internationally at the likes of SXSW in Texas, CMJ in New York and Montreal Jazz Festival, coupled with weekly coverage across all 40 local BBC stations, as well as regular coverage across Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music, Asian Network and The World Service with a global reach of 50million, it’s come a long way.
That’s why this festival stage is just as important for us as the acts on it.
An unsigned JME performed in our first year with Two Door Cinema Club and Jake Bugg quickly following in the list of unknown acts to set foot on the stage.
Isaac Gracie at BBC Introducing's SXSW Showcase in March 2016
Nine years on and we’ve had over 190 brand new artists perform on the Introducing stage at the iconic festival, including Ed Sheeran, Izzy Bizu, SOAK and Daughter, with many acts returning to their roots to thank us for our early support like Gabrielle Aplin, George Ezra, and James Bay.
And this year we look forward to showcasing our next batch of future headliners, including Isaac Gracie, Jodie Abacus and The Bay Rays. We will also have more BBC Introducing alumni popping back for surprise slots across the weekend with their performances broadcasting live across Radio 1, Radio 2 and 6 Music, with loads more content across the BBC and online.
The BBC Introducing line-up for Glastonbury was chosen by our network music teams across BBC Radio, TV and our specialist DJs too – the stage will be live streamed across the weekend on the BBC Glastonbury website, so if you are not down at Worthy Farm this year, you can watch it all from the comfort of your home!
