The Blaze Announced as ‘Deezer NEXT’ 2018 Global Priority Act

Paris, Monday 23rd July 2018: Deezer, the world’s most personal music streaming service, continues support emerging artists and is proud to announce The Blaze as its next global priority act. The Blaze, a unique French dance and electronic duo, released their first single Virile in 2016. They have since released popular tracks Territory and Heaven, and a new album is due to drop later this year.  

Deezer NEXT is an artist first program designed to champion emerging talent from around the world. The Blaze join soulful vocalist Jorja Smith and pop singer Zak Abel as global priority artists, with the final global act to be revealed later in the year. All selected Deezer NEXT artists are supported with profile development, playlisting and take part in creative Artist Marketing campaigns for 12 months.

Since its first launch in January 2017, Deezer NEXT global and local artists have seen a huge increase in both fans and stream with Jorja Smith, the first Deezer global priority act of 2018 seeing a boost of over 1,187% in streams and more than 665% growth in fans, while Zak Abel has seen an impressive jump of 1,307% in streams and over 2,263% increase in fans.

Local picks such as Spanish artist Mala Rodríguez has had a 279% boost in streams since March, Russian act Manizha grew streams by 566% from January and French rapper Moha La Squale has seen an impressive 369% growth in fans in just the last three months.

The Blaze commented: “We’re very happy to be part of the Deezer NEXT program. Receiving global support will give us the opportunity to share our music with more people around the world. We are looking forward to also sharing new music in the coming months!”

Sulinna Ong, Global Vice President of Artist Marketing comments: “Supporting developing talent is vital. Our users’ tastes are diverse and there’s a real appetite for discovering new music which is why we’ve included a definite mix of genres in our 2018 programme; from electronic and dance through to indie-pop and rap. With our 2017 alumni growing their global audience, we’re looking forward to working with our latest line-up to build similar success”

The regional developing artists also joining the Deezer NEXT 2018 lineup include:

France:

• Belgium-born pop artist, Angèle, has been catching attention with track ‘Adoubée’ alongside the famous Ibeyi and Damso
• Dance and electronic artist, Moussa, is turning heads with his first single, ‘Cabrioli’, launching at the end of last year  

Latin America:

• Greeicy is a Colombian actress and singer, who recently released her debut single ‘Mas Fuerte’ featuring Mike Bahía.
• Justin Quilles has written songs for J Balvin and in 2017 broke into the new genre of Latin Trap with ‘Cuestion De Tiempo’
• Pushing boundaries in the Chilean Indie electro-pop scene, Javiera Mena released her fourth album ‘Espejo’ this year
• Puerto Rican singer, Brytiago, is also the US Deezer NEXT artist and stormed the Latin Billboard charts in 2018 with Ozuna and Chris Jeday and their track ‘Bipolar’

Germany:

• Pop singer and songwriter, LEA, kick-started her musical journey on YouTube and this year released the track ‘Zu Dir’   

Netherlands:

• Dutch duo HAEVN, recently released their long-expected debut album ‘Eyes Closed’. Not only turning heads in The Netherlands but also making waves in France and Germany

Russia:

• Arty is  is a Russian musician, producer, DJ and model. He has collaborated with Armin van Buuren, Above & Beyond, BT, Paul van Dyk, Mat Zo, OneRepublic and Matisse & Sadko.

South Africa:

• Young DJ/Producer, Muzi, is building a presence in the South African electronic music scene after releasing album ‘Afrovision’ in 2018
• Pop singer/songwriter, Bianca Blac, hails from Pretoria and is gaining attention with her track ‘All My Life’

Singapore/Malaysia:

• Hip-hop artist and producer, Aman Ra has a growing following with his music having achieved over 6.5 million combined YouTube views to date

USA:

• Making music with a hybrid of blues, pop and punk, Brent Cowles recently released his debut album ‘How To Be Okay Alone’