Anchor International Music Award

 

Here you can find everything about the Anchor - Nominees, Anchor Board 2025, Jury 2025, Archive and the Press Kit

The­se are the 2025 No­mi­nees

An­chor Board 2025

Porträt von Bethan Elfyn

Bethan Elfyn

Anchor Board 2025

BBC Project Manager, Presenter and Producer with 25 years’ experience at the forefront of new music, working for over a decade with BBC Radio One, BBC 6Music, and hosting and DJing and curating stages at a number of high profile festivals – Latitude, Reading Festival, Greenman, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, ATP Australia and others. Bethan now heads up the development and strategy of BBC’s public value partnership with Arts Council of Wales under the banner Horizons/ Gorwelion – a music talent development scheme to develop new, independent contemporary music in Wales, UK. Horizons is a member of talent development European exchange called Excite, who showcase at a number of partner festivals. 

Portrait Clémence Renaut

Clémence Renaut

Anchor Board 2025

Clémence Renaut is a Paris based booking agent at ATC Live and represents artists such as Mac DeMarco, Aldous Harding, Ty Segall, Black Country, New Road, Wu Lyf, Current Joys, Florence Sinclair amongst others. She worked as a promoter for 8 years at SUPER!, and Elastic Artists as an agent, before joining ATC live in 2016.

Portrait Dotun Bolaji

Dotun Bolaji

Anchor Board 2025

Dotun Bolaji is a booking agent known for his commitment to promoting unique voices, talent and stories in the music industry. Dotun's dedication to promoting emerging talent led him to a key role at Runway, where he honed his booking skills under the guidance of industry veterans such as Steve Backman and Matt Hanner. In his current role at Primary Talent International, Dotun continues to set new standards, focusing on both the UK and international markets. His expertise lies in managing and expanding international touring and festival opportunities.

Portrait Francisca Sandoval Scheggia

Francisca Sandoval Scheggia

Anchor Board 2025

With over 15 years of experience in the Chilean independent music industry, she has held various roles within the sector. She is currently the President of the Chilean Independent Music Association (IMICHILE) and General Manager of Chilemúsica, the sector brand dedicated to promoting the export of Chilean music. At an international level, she is a Board Member of WIN (Worldwide Independent Network), an organization that brings together independent music associations from Australasia, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America, representing thousands of music businesses and professionals worldwide. Additionally, she is the Head of the Conference Area at Fluvial, an international music and conference event held in Valdivia, Chile, since 2016. She is also part of Discos Río Bueno and La Unión, projects focused on music production, booking, and communications. 

Portrait Hella Wittenberg

Hella Wittenberg

Anchor Board 2025

Hella Wittenberg works as an editor in Berlin and Brandenburg. She is Head of Content in the online editorial department at Musikexpress, but also writes about her favorite new music, film and series discoveries for the print editions. She also writes and photographs as a freelancer, including for Mit Vergnügen. 

Portrait Jovanka von Wilsdorf

Jovanka von Wilsdorf

Anchor Board 2025

Jovanka v. Wilsdorf, Berlin, is the initiator of the DIANA AI Song Contest and the Female* Producer Prize (Germany) and the musical director at Hanson robotics (Hong Kong). In addition to her work as a creative consultant and artist coach for various music companies and Musicboard Berlin, she gives lectures on international stages on the topics of  "AI in music production" and "artist development". 

Porträt von Justin Sweeting

Justin Sweeting

Anchor Board 2025

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Justin Sweeting has over twenty years music industry experience, centered within Asia. As Clockenflap’s co-founder and Head of Music, Justin is responsible for programming across all of Clockenflap’s festival properties as well as year-round headline show touring in Hong Kong and beyond. Connecting the dots between Asia and the global industry at large, Justin enjoys spreading the word on the region’s music potential and is actively involved in its positive evolution. 

Portrait Karma Bertelsen

Karma Bertelsen

Anchor Board 2025

With more than a decade of entertainment and music industry experience, Karma Bertelsen (she/her) is an award-winning marketing expert who has worked with a variety of artists in various forms from Ed Sheeran, Craig David, and Red Hot Chili Peppers to Phoebe Bridgers, The 1975, and Björk, Karma has been a team player in pioneering, chart-topping, and acclaimed music campaigns. With a truly 360 holistic understanding of the music sector, Karma has worked across various sectors, including live, recorded, and distribution, giving her an extensive and unique understanding of audiences, artists, and the wider music ecosystem. She is an advocate for diversity in music and her work has seen her inducted into the Music Week Women in Music Awards Roll of Honour (2017), SheSaidSo’s Alternative Power List (2017), shesaid.so x keychange.eu ‘we.grow’ mentor (2023 & 2024), inducted into the Kindness in Leadership 50 leading lights list 2024 and be selected for Keychange’s Talent Leadership Programme 2025.

Portrait Mandi McIntyre

Mandi McIntyre

Anchor Board 2025

Mandi is the Director of Programs at QMusic & BIGSOUND. She has two decades of experience leading festival programs and cultural development, including at Woodford Folk Festival, across Australia and internationally. From roots at Brisbane’s 4ZZZfm to Glastonbury festival, she champions music's power for environmental and social change. She is a director of the board for Green Music Australia, championing the ‘No Music On A Dead Planet’ campaign. 

Portrait Ramera Abraham

Ramera Abraham

Anchor Board 2025

Ramera Abraham is a London-based vocal producer, songwriter, producer, and recording engineer. After obtaining her engineering degree from Abbey Road Institute in 2018, she started in the industry with an engineering residency at Spotify's Noteable studio, with mentorship from Berklee College of Music. It was there that Ramera dealt with daily studio operations while delving into the world of vocal production and engineering. She moved on to work as a runner, then assistant engineer at Metropolis Studios, assisting artists like Adele, Little Mix, Nick Cave, Elton John, Stormzy, and Sam Fender. Now as a freelancer, Ramera works with independent artists as well as artist services company, Platoon, across their artist roster. She has worked with RAYE, Ms Banks, Ayra Starr, Henry Moodie, KAMILLE, Luz, and Saint Harison. Ramera was also included in SheSaidSo's Alternative Power 100 List 2021 as one to watch, and is the Music Producers Guild's Vocal Producer of the Year 2023.   

Portrait Sosefina Fuamoli

Sosefina Fuamoli

Anchor Board 2025

Sosefina Fuamoli is an award-winning Samoan-Australian music journalist, broadcaster, and content producer based in Melbourne, Australia. Her career reflects a deep commitment to promoting Australian music and fostering a diverse musical culture. Sosefina's work has also had significant professional impact on the Australian and Pacific music industries, with her work shaping media narratives, representation, and industry access for underrepresented artists and communities. Sosefina's work has been featured in a number of titles including Rolling Stone Australia, NME, The Australian, KNOTFEST and more. She can currently be heard hosting weekly music interview show ‘On The Record’ for Radio Australia, as well as ‘Sista Sounds’ - a show dedicated to amplifying women’s voices throughout the Pacific region. As of 2025, she can be seen regularly on television as a music correspondent for ABC News Breakfast. 

Portrait Yudu Gray Jr.

Yudu Gray Jr.

Anchor Board 2025

Yudu Gray Jr. is a three-time GRAMMY-winning executive, experienced entrepreneur, and artist advocate focused on empowering creators globally by simplifying the business of music. As Co-Founder & Co-CEO of 24/7 Artists, he’s built a global community of over 25,000 creative professionals that foster innovation and gives all artists the confidence and tools to pursue their dreams. 

Portrait stronboi

Highlights of Anchor Award Show | Reeperbahn Festival 2024

On this special evening our wonderfull hosts Melissa Khalaj & Tarik Tesfu present the best six up-and-coming live acts of the year at the St. Pauli Theater. 

And the jury consisting of Emily Kokal, Julia Stone, Tayla Parx and Tim Bendzko announces the winner of the Anchor 2024 -

strongboi!

Congratulations!

 

Here you can find all videos from Anchor 2024

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About

The Anchor – Reeperbahn Festival International Music Award has been presented to up-and-coming musicians as part of the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg since 2016.

For fans and music industry professionals, it helps guide them in their search for the best new music – and for the competitors it is a springboard to an international career.

A jury panel comprising well-known names from the international music industry selects the nominees from the festival programme in advance. The nominees have the opportunity over two days of the festival to impress festival visitors and the distinguished Anchor jury – and if their music, lyrics and performance are outstanding and unique enough, they’re in with a chance of winning the Anchor, presented at an award show on the Friday of the festival. 

Find out all about the Anchor in this video.

This is the An­chor Jury 2025

Portrait von Tayla Parx

Tayla Parx

Anchor Jury 2025

Tayla Parx is one of the most influential songwriters and artists of her generation. With over 6 billion streams, several Grammy nominations, and hits such as Ariana Grande's "7 rings" and "thank u, next" as well as Panic! At The Disco's "High Hopes," she has played a key role in shaping pop music in recent years. As one of only four black women at the top of the US country charts, she made music history with Dan + Shay's "Glad You Exist." In addition to her solo albums, "We Need To Talk" and "Coping Mechanisms", and the current album "Many Moons, Many Suns," Parx is also a successful entrepreneur: with TaylaMade Inc., she combines her own publishing and studio structures and works with partners such as the Recording Academy and American Express. Early in her career, she appeared as an actress in productions such as Hairspray, Gilmore Girls, and True Jackson VP and can still be heard today in international games such as The Sims and The Walking Dead. Tayla Parx stands for creative independence, versatility, and an unmistakable signature both as an artist and as a producer and visionary. 

Portrait von Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro

Anchor Jury 2025

Suzi Quatro is a living rock legend. The singer, bassist, actress, author, and radio presenter was born in Detroit in 1950 and started her career early in the family band ‘The Art Quatro Trio’. At the age of 14, she played with her sister Patti in the band The Pleasure Seekers and, with her distinctive blend of leather, bass, and unbridled energy, became one of the first women not only to play in the rock business but to shape it. In 1973, she landed a worldwide number one hit with "Can The Can." This was followed by other classics such as "48 Crash," "Devil Gate Drive," and the US duet "Stumblin' In." To date, she has sold over 55 million records. In addition to her music, Quatro was also successful as an actress, including in the cult series Happy Days, and shone in Annie Get Your Gun in London's West End. Since 1999, she has hosted her radio programmes on BBC Radio 2 and has been nominated for the Sony Radio Award, among others. Her versatility is also evident in theatre projects, book publications, the documentary Suzi Q (2019), and collaborations with artists such as KT Tunstall. 

Portrait von Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson

Anchor Jury 2025

Laurie Anderson is a writer, director, composer, visualartist, musician and vocalist who has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of art, theater, experimental music, and technology. Anderson has created numerous multimedia stage performances, published ten books, and been nominated for five Grammy awards. Her visual work has been exhibited globally, with her largest solo exhibitions to date recently displayed at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In 2024 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy. Anderson recently debuted her new show ARK in Manchester, England last November. 

Portrait von Bazzazian

BAZZAZIAN

Anchor Jury 2025

BAZZAZIAN is not a name that is flashing in glaring letters, and yet he is one of the most influential figures in the German music landscape. For over two decades, he changed the way we hear, feel, and think about music. He is a producer, composer, sound architect, if not the most influential designer in the field of pop, rap, and experimental music. BAZZAZIAN became known above all as the creative driving force behind the exceptional German rapper Haftbefehl. Azad, Miss Platnum, Gentleman, Farhot, Samy Deluxe, Schmyt, Symba, and Apsilon are some of the country's most important artists he has worked with, collecting gold and platinum records, realising MTV Unplugged productions, composing an opera, and creating award-winning music for film and television. His signature style is unmistakable: intense, complex, emotional, and never comfortable. BAZZAZIAN believes in music that shakes things up; he finds beauty in arising friction. His sound is often dark, raw, and fragile. Anyone who gets involved quickly realises that his music is not a safe space, but a space in which everything is at stake: fear, doubt, despair, but also courage, resistance, and truthfulness. 

Portrait von Max Giesinger

Max Giesinger

Anchor Jury 2025

Max Giesinger is one of the most successful and down-to-earth singer-songwriters in the German pop scene. With songs such as 80 Millionen, Wenn sie tanzt, and Legenden, he has not only sung his way to the top of the charts in recent years, but also into the hearts of a wide audience. His career has taken him from Waldbronn in Baden to the pedestrianised zones of Karlsruhe and Sydney and on to the country's major festival stages. In 2012, he participated in The Voice of Germany and consistently earned his place in the German music scene afterwards: With a lot of perseverance, a clear focus on the essentials and the will to constantly grow as an artist. In recent years, Max Giesinger has consciously taken space to rethink his music - more personal, more independent, more grounded. In doing so, he emphasises the genuine over the expected and questions the usual mechanisms of the industry. Whether in songwriting, in the studio or on tour: he continues to search for depth, connection and a sound that really suits him. 

Pho­to Gal­le­ry

Pho­to Gal­le­ry Win­ners 2016 - 2024

Ar­chi­ve

Press Kit

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