SUPERSTAR: Stanmore singer makes it through to competition final

An 18-year-old Stanmore resident entered a national competition for unsigned artists to win a £100,000 recording contract with a label.

Joe Taylor performed his unreleased single ‘Lost in the fantasy’, to win over the judges and audience at the Alpha unsigned heat two competition, on November 23.

Alpha Music & Records are on the lookout for ‘the next big thing’ in the UK’s music scene.

Artists performed live and were judged for a chance to go through to the Grand Final at the O2 Indigo and one step closer to the grand prize of a £100,000 record deal.

The record label chose top musicians to compete in the heats. The heats were judged by well-known artists and music industry professional, with the winner of each category progressing to the grand final in 2022.

There are three heats, and seven artists were put through to each heat, and three winners are chosen to go through to the final in March 2022.

Joe was chosen out of thousands of entries to go through to the heats, he was given £250 prize on the night.

The 18-year-old came first in the heat and was overwhelmed with the result as he described everyone to be so talented.

Joe said: “I never thought I’d do something like this, competitions don’t usually appeal to me, but I was really interested in this because I’ve heard good things about the label.”

Performing at the O2 is a “massive dream” of Joes.

He said: “I never thought I’d ever be able to perform there, especially when I’m only 18 years old.

“I’m constantly writing new material, each day I’m working on myself and working to get better.”

To show people the best of Joe Taylor he performed his own song, written a week before the performance, which joe described as one of the most meaningful songs he’s written.

“I was nervous to perform it because I didn’t know how people would react, it was risky, but I knew I had to perform it.”

The Stanmore singer is a student at Access Creative College in Shoreditch studying Music, he is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist and hoping to go on to study music at university next year.