12th February 2019: Deezer, the global music streaming service, is proud to roll out the 2019 edition of Deezer NEXT. The annual artist development initiative is designed to identify and champion emerging talent around the world. Lewis Capaldi, the Scottish singer-songwriter and English singer Sam Fender join as 2019’s global priority acts. Manuel Turizo, Dreezy and Cheyo Carrillo join as priority acts for the US, a group that highlights diversity in music and also demonstrates the great impact that Latin artists are having on a global scale.
Returning for its third consecutive year, the program supports developing artists and provides them with an avenue for new exposure to local and worldwide audiences. The new class of Deezer NEXT will receive 12 months of dedicated support from Deezer’s Artist Marketing and Editorial teams. This includes playlisting and creative marketing campaigns involving special content, fan events and social media amplification.
Lewis Capaldi is the first artist to grow to become a global priority act following participation in the local UK program. During his year in the UK Deezer NEXT program, Lewis experienced a 110% increase in streams and a 438% increase in his fanbase. Lewis’ latest track ‘Someone You Loved’ recently hit the top 10 UK singles chart.
Lewis Capaldi commented: “I’ve been absolutely blown away by the support of Deezer since I’ve started releasing music, from coming to a number of my live shows to choosing me as one of their UK Deezer NEXT artists for last year. So to be told that they’ve now chosen me as their Deezer NEXT Global artist for this year is a huge honour and I’m massively looking forward to the year ahead! Have had thousands of messages of people discovering my tunes over on Deezer so am absolutely buzzing about the year ahead!”
Among the selected is Manuel Turizo, who at the age of 19 managed to captivate Latin America with his well-known success, “Una señora como tú” in the company of his brother Julián. They formed a powerful duo thanks to Manuel’s deeply rich voice and the accompaniment of Julian on the ukulele. In addition, they have managed to expand their repertoire thanks to being featured on major hits with artists from around the world, including Ozuna, Piso 21, Juan Magán, Belinda, Nacho and many more.
Manuel Turizo commented: “Thanks to Deezer for inviting me to be part of their Next project. We are going to work hard together and achieve incredible things! “
Dreezy, considered “The Princess of Chicago Rap”, she has continued to garner a loyal fanbase and positive critical reception through singles, mixtapes and impressive collaborations.T Dreezy returns with her second full length project Big Dreez. The lyricist takes her style to new levels, which includes singles “Where Them $ @” and “Chanel Slides” featuring Kash Doll.
Dreezy commented: “It’s happening! This Princess of Chicago Rap is ready to take on the Deezer Next program in 2019″
Cheyo Carrillo, an up-and-coming Regional Mexican artist and Los Angeles native. He released his debut single “No Es Normal” which landed him in the top 10 Billboard Regional Mexican Songs chart and has garnered over six million views. He is due to release new music in 2019.
Cheyo Carrillo commented: I can’t wait to work with Deezer on this upcoming program in 2019. Lots of surprises coming this year – thank you all for all the love.”
David Atkinson, Director of Label Relations North America at Deezer commented: “Deezer has the privilege of connecting artists and fans all over the world. In the US, we also have the opportunity to support talented acts both from here or those that have sought out the thriving music industry in the US to make their dreams come true. We have worked with many great artists before including Gashi, Sofia Reyes, R.LUM.R, Johann Vera, and Leslie Grace. I’m very excited to add the new group of rising stars Dreezy, Chayo Carrillo and Manuel Turizo to the list. Each of them have what it takes to become something very special in 2019.”
The Deezer NEXT 2018 Global alumni, Jorja Smith, Zak Abel, The Blaze and Sofi Tukker, between them experienced an amazing 3,370% increase in fanbase on average. From a month prior to joining NEXT to present day, Jorja Smith’s fanbase on Deezer grew by 7,781%. On average the streams of the global acts grew 432% during the campaign year. US Priority acts Brytiago and Gashi have also experienced increases in their streams of over 200% each.
The first round of 2019 global and regional acts are:
Global
Latin America
UK
France
Germany
Spain
Austria
Netherlands
South Africa
In addition to the above, Deezer will select and announce two additional global priority artists and a selection of regional artists across multiple markets during 2019.